OVID'S INVECTIVE or CURSE AGAINST IBIS, Faithfully and familiarly Translated into English Verse.  
And the Histories therein contained, being in number two hundred and fifty (at the least) briefly explained, one by one; With Natural, Moral, Poetical, Political, Mathematical, and some few Theological Applications.  
Whereunto is prefixed a double INDEX: One of the Proper Names herein mentioned; Another of the Common Heads from thence deduced.  
Both pleasant and profitable for each sort, Sex and Age, and very useful for Grammar Schools.  
By John Jones M. A. Teacher of a private School in the City of HEREFORD.  

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Carpere vel noli nostra, vel ede tua.   
Printed by J. G. for Ric. Davis in Oxon. 1658.   

Translator ad suam Ovidianae Ibidis Translationem, in laceris adhuc chartis latitantem.  
IBIS, peribis? nec Liber tuam potest  
Redimere vitam? ut Clericus quamvis legas,  
Latinè, & Anglicè; novo, & veteri stylo,  
Suspender, eheu, Furcifer caput Tuum?  
Potiùs premaris, opto: Cur jugum ferant  
Hoc liberi Homines, jure quod Liber ferat?  
At, Te cremari, non premi velim, Liber;  
Modò, qui premuntur, liberi forent jugo:  
IBIS, peribis, omine hôc, silentio.  

To Captain Anonymus Anargyrus.  
What Captain can a common Soldier press  
For public service, lawfully, unless  
Press-Money first he claps into his hand?  
Man without Money will have poor command.  
Such is my Book, no private promise may  
Press it, nor Public Faith, but present Pay.   

To Momus.  
I knew a Cobbler once had skill in Awl,  
Whom most of us did John Translator call,  
So may'st thou me: my Cobbling hath no End,  
Yet where I Cobble thou wilt not commend.   
J. J.   

To all his worthy Friends in ENGLAND, J.J. Dedicates this his Translation of IBIS.  
PLease read Mercurius Poeticus  
Of Naso Englished: Politicus,  
Nor Aulicus, nor large Britannicus,  
Nor any of that Gang, e'er brought to us  
Such general News from all parts; Africa,  
And Europe, Asia, and America.  
How Machiavelli hath plotted Treachery,  
Under the reverend Mask of Piety:  
How Kings are killed that do their subjects vex;  
How Phaeton●ick spirits break their necks:  
Such news are hither fled, though not so new,  
Such Plots are practised; Would it were not true.  
Yet in this Book are more prodigious things  
Sent o'er by Ovid upon Ibis' wings:  
Believe't who will, I cannot; He's a Poet:  
Yet better trust him, then rake Hell to know it.  
Heavens bless you English, that read Ibis' Curse,  
Grudge not that time; 'tis spent in News-books worse.  
Deign Ibis roost, she hath renewed her Age;  
Vncleaner Birds, in Europe, have a Cage.  
Her good old Master's dead, her new one's dying,  
And she for shelter throughout England flying.   

To all his worthy Friends in the Dominion of WALES, J. J. Dedicates this his Translation of OVID'S Invective against IBIS.  
ON Parnasse hill risen the Nectarian Font,  
Where sisters nine, the Poet's Mothers, wont  
To fill themselves as public Cisterns, and  
Derive by Conduits, throughout every land,  
Their influence: Thus Art will quickly bring  
Waters so high in ascent as they spring:  
Thus the Inanimate Messenger will straight  
Convey from hill to h●ll, of equal height,  
Though far remote. When I in Wales do pass,  
Methinks some hills show level to Parnasse,  
The air no less acute: If any vein  
Within my body doth a drop contain  
Of purer blood, that to the Welsh I owe,  
Whence my fore fathers sprung; and who doth know,  
But my Poetic ve●ne, if such thing be,  
From that instinct of Nature came to me?  
Philosophers are made so, Poets are  
So born; but Nature void of Art looks bare.  
As grateful Rivers tribute do return  
Unto the pregnant Springs where they were born:  
So doth my Muse these First-fruits offer you,  
And when she is more able more will vow.   

To the READER.  
THis Youthful study, (thus some novelists have childishly nicknamed Poetry) for a man who have already lived more years than Ovid, who am almost worn out in Body and Spirits, by that unexpressible labour of Teaching School, not much less than forty years, might seem rather to condemn me of an affected Frenzy, then commend me for any ingenious Fancy. But the indefatigable and real Love which I have, do, and ever will bear to Scholars, past, present and future, as well in others as my own Tuition, (backed with animation of many good friends) hath induced me to adventure on this elaborate, though little Poem: A work I thought too hard for my greener, and find not easy for my riper age. A work so difficult, that the pa●e of Oedipus, or a Sibyl, might sweat in the unridling of some pieces of it; so compendious and complete, that I may truly say, here is not only Homer's Iliads in a Nutshell, as it was once presented to the greatest of Emperors; but a mere Epitome of the most and the best of the Works of Homer, Virgil, and other Poets; of Plutarch, Diodorus, and other Historians; yea of all the Works of Ovid himself. This Enchiridion will prove, I hope, not a Pamphlet, but a Panoply, or Pandora's basket. Hence may Scholars, under the Ferula, find help for composing of a Theme, both in Prose and Verse. Hence may young Gentlemen find help for discourse in History and Poetry. Hence may the Aged, if learned, recall to memory what they read in youth; if otherwise, they are not so old but they may hence learn somewhat. In a word, out of this Curse of Ovid, each sort, Sex and Age may pick a blessing, as Samson did swe●t out of the strong, honey out of the Lion. If any of my English verses seem rugged, and to run like a bowl upon a rock, a civil and smooth censurer, without wrong to his judgement, may lawfully excuse me, for these ensuing reasons.  
First, In the whole Poem I was as much bound to conclude each sentence in the narrow compass of one Distich, as each Distich is bound to the strict number of so many and no moor Feet.  
Secondly, I have endeavoured, not Paraphrastically, as some have done in many Authors, but punctually, (as near as sense and verse could bear it) to render my Poet in English word for word.  
Thirdly, and lastly, Most of the Distiches in this book do comprehend Histories so narrowly couched, and chained together, that in the one Distich you will find sometimes fewer, sometimes three, or two, at the least one. So that I may boldly say, there are not so many histories of so few verses of any Poet now extant whatsoever. All these histories I have one by one, briefly and fully illustrated and explained, by collecting and comparing the several conjectures of the choicest Authors that have walked in that path. The most that I have stolen in composing this small piece of Illustration, was many hours snatched from night, and my own repose: For the day was not mine, but dedicated to that Sisyphon-toil of the Education of Youth. And to add, as it were a M●nd to the Body, for the benefit of old and young, I have brought home each history to our own selves by Application. First Physical; for under the shadowing names of fictitious Heathen Deities is covered the Body and Substance of Natural Philosophy; Poets under Allegories expressing the wonderful works of Nature. Secondly, ethical; For the utmost scope the Poets aimed at, was not Fables, but Morality. Here be Precepts that will inform the Understanding, reform the Affection, and direct the Will: Here are noble examples, inflaming the mind with candid emulation; leading, as it were by the hand, through the temple of Virtue, to the temple of Honour. H●re be more perfect Rules then those of Men or Fortune, in the exalting of Virtue and suppression of Vice; showing the Beauty of the one and Deformity of the other. Thirdly, Theological: For let a skilful hand modestly draw aside the curtain of Poetry, there will fairly appear the sovereign face of the Queen of all Arts, Divinity. Tertullian is plain and pithy; Many of the Poetical fictions, saith the Father, had their original from the Scriptures. And without all question, as before Letters the Ancients expressed their conceptions in Hieroglyphics, so did the Poets their Divinity under Fables and Parables. In Poetry you may discern an Unity and a Trinity. One God under several attributes and effects; Three persons all Brothers, Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto. Their Ensigns a threeforked Thunderbolt, a threeforked Mace, a threeheaded Dog. Three Graces, three Fates, three Furies. In Poetry are described the Joys of Heaven charactered by the Elysian fields, the Torments of Hell deciphred in the burning lake of Phlegeton, and the Tortures of damned ●xion and the rest. In this little Manual of IBIS is enough to furnish you with Political and Mathematical observations, as far as so small a bulk can hold. My Illustration may afford you a Key and a Clew, to guide you through every intricate room of this darksome labyrinth: But first and principally please to take in your hand this grand Key of the Porch or Entry; the Author and the Argument.  
Publius Ovid Naso, a Roman Knight, of an ancient Family, one of the completest Gentlemen in Augustus Caesar's Court; a great admirer, and as much admired of the excellent Poets in that learned Age: He had an ample Patrimony at Sulmo, an house and Temple in the City, and another house near the Capital, with pleasant Gardens and plentiful Orchards. But in this so happy condition, in the one and fiftieth year of his age, he was banished, or rather confined to Tomos, a City in Sarmatia, bordering upon the Euxin Sea, by Augustus Caesar. The cause of this so cruel and deplored Exile is guest at more than known. Some do conjecture that it was for his too much familiarity with Julia the Emperor's daughter; Others that he had unfortunately seen the incest of Caesar. But the pretended occasion was, for the composing the Art of Love; and the Emperor to salve his own and his daughter's honour, would have it thought so among the people. Having spent few years in this cold and comfortless Climate, he was possessed (to add to his misery) with this unwelcome news, That one of Rome whom Caelius Rhodiginus calleth Corvinus, Suetonius calls Hyginus, but the most Cornificus; (a fit name for a Horn-maker) had in his absence solicited his wife, laboured against the Repeal of his Banishment, and being a great favourite of Augustus, endeavoured to gain the whole estate of the Banished Knight unto himself. Our smooth and gentle Poet, that never writ a virulent verse before, being half hornmad hereupon, in a jealous apprehension, lips his Quill in bitterest Gall, and pens this last and least, but best of all his Poems; Masking his Enemy (as the Greek Poet Callimachus did Apollonius that stole his Verses, and published them for his own) under the ambiguous name of IBIS; a name more ugly than that D●lphical SMECTYMNUUS. This IBIS was a spurcitious unclean Bird of Egypt, haunting the River Nilus, feeding upon nothing but stinking carcases, spewed thence upon the land by Inundations: She used to purge her gorged paunch by sucking up salt water, and injecting it with her long Stork-like beak, into her narrow posterior orifice. Many more things of this Bird are recorded by Aristotle, Herodotus, Aelian, Pliny, Tully, Strabo, Mela, and divers others. Pisidas in a Greek Epigram merrily concludes, that she is more learned than Galen himself. Perhaps that Physicians from this Birds uncleanly conveyance, were taught the use of a Clyster-pipe. To which purpose facetious Alciat hath composed an Emblem, which I here will transcribe, and translate, and submit all to your candid interpretation.  Alciati Emblema 87. 

Quae rostro, Clystere velut, sibi proluit alvum  
Ibis, Niliacis cognita littoribus,  
Transiit opprobii in nomen, quo Publius hostem  
Naso suum appellat, Battiadésque suum.   

Ibis' of Nile, that with her beak as't were  
A Clyster-pipe, her fundament doth clear,  
Is an opprobrious name; for Ovid thus  
Doth call his Foe; so doth Callimachus.   
J. J.   

To his Friend Mr John Jones, Translator of OVID'S IBIS.  
MUst I turn Poet too? and dress my lines  
To measured feet, and Rhythms in Tropes and signs?  
Well, wonder on, I thus should venture on it,  
Who ne'er could Poem write, nor juggling sonnet;  
It seems far worse than madness now in me,  
Verses to write in times of scrutiny.  
Methinks I see some Mome hath with his eye,  
Caught these poor lines, and with his fingers try  
Whether they hold proportion with their feet;  
Not caring much whether with sense they greet:  
Searches for Bombast, squeezed Epithets,  
And in Seraphic nonsense much delights.  
Friend, it is well for thee, my lines do make  
Thee forlorn, and the shock of fury take  
From off thy work; for else they'd ranting spend  
Their malice all on thee before they'd end.  
'Twas well thou mettest with such a subject too,  
By which thy carelessness thou'lt fully show,  
In case they show their rancour; do not care,  
Just as your Poet Ibis spared, them spare.  
'Twas Ovid gave the Theme, give him the praise;  
But Jones that made the Comment, reach the bays.  
'Twas he that made the Roman Eagle air  
With his sweet Lure in Albion's Isle, the fair,  
And made ingenious Ovid speak a tongue,  
That he did ne'er so much as think upon.  
'Twas not condoling Tristibus thou took'st,  
Nor on his waggish Ars Amandi look'st;  
But 'tis his crabbed Ibis, that in Rhythms  
Thou English taught'st in these detracting time's;  
And dost not fear to let detractors see  
Themselves in ancient Ibis' destiny.  
This thy Translation is not Paraphrase;  
Nor do thy words his meaning ought disgrace.  
Thou dost not aim at blustering eloquence,  
Rhombissian words, with peaking piteous sense;  
But as th' Original is pure and clear  
So is the Copy, they do close so near;  
Where it before sounded all mystery,  
thoust beautified it with plain history.  
Thanks to thy pains and care, I can no more:  
Pardon my Muse, it ne'er had guilt before.  
Had Ovid heard what I had wrote on's Ibis',  
Like Delphian Oracle, he'd say Peribis.  
Silas Taylor.   

To the Author of the Translation of OVID'S Book in IBIN.  
AT the first sight your pains did seem to me  
A sullen rudeness to Civility:  
Bringing by bold attempt, that book to light,  
Which was in sable robes condemned to night.  
But having read your sober Illustrations,  
Moral, Divine, Poetical relations;  
I handsomely saw couched what might in short,  
Please both the learned and the vulgar sort.  
The names of Phasis, Strymon, Hebrus, make  
My Muse in Autumn, chilled with cold to quake:  
Yours broke muchice, since first you undertook,  
To level precipices in this book;  
And make aenigmas plain, that all the Nation  
Might read a mystery in your Revelation.  
Reece Morris.   

To Mr Jo. Jones, Translator, Illustrator and Commentator of Ovid's Ibis.  
NOr do I weigh what any Mome may think,  
(Only I wish his Gall to make me Ink  
When I a satire write) but now my quill  
I'd wish to dip, where Ovid's self did fill  
His versing pen; for he who had the wit  
To teach the art of Love, would practise it;  
He, who what e'er he thought on to rehearse,  
Like Metal in a mould would run to verse;  
He'd show himself as grateful unto thee,  
As e'er to Ibis he could spiteful be;  
For thoust enammelled his cast Poetry,  
Making him, Heathen, speak Divinity;  
And with choice Jewels ne●● cut and enchased,  
His Muse and thine, hast jointly, richly graced.  
Thou hast redeemed him from his long Exile,  
And made him Denizon of our English Isle.  
The Act is past, but not by public stealth,  
He's Naturalised in our Commonwealth.  
But stay, let's see; (Apollo be my guide)  
How many Gordian knots are here untied?  
And if the young King, when he cut but one  
With's sword, 'twas destiny'd that he alone  
Should the World's Monarch be; what honour's fit  
For him, who hundreds loosed with sharper wit?  
But that this Iron age doth wisely afford  
Less honour to the Pen, then to the Sword.  
Yet stand again, what have I now espied?  
After these ravelled knots thou hast untied,  
Thou knitt'st again their ends, (an endless pain)  
Weav'st them with wists of thine own studious brain;  
Then in fresh colours, lively to the eye,  
Like Arras work, describest each History;  
Thus framest a piece of curious Tapestry,  
May any students study beautify.  
Yours still JO. HILL.   

To his much honoured Mr John Jones, Master of Arts, and Schoolmaster in the City of Hereford; upon his Translation, Comment, and Observations upon Ovid his Ibis.  
SO Phospher wakes the morn, with grateful light,  
Translated from the obscure arms of night;  
So Phoebus from a cloud rescues a ray,  
At once to lighten and adorn the day.  
This Book of all that's Ovid, I do think  
Was like the Cuttle, hid in its own ink;  
Each line an History, and as it stood,  
Then Ibis' self less known or understood.  
Thus a fair room in building, where no way  
Is left by window to let in the day,  
Conceals its beauty, and by that abuse  
Rich to itself, is Poor to every use;  
But when the Artist's hand shall let in light,  
At once we see with wonder and delight,  
Embroideries, Arras, Tissues, we behold  
Rich Persian carpets, fringed with pearl and gold;  
Then we first praise the riches, when once shown,  
Before not understood, because not known.  
Here you remove the veil, and let us see  
The now known wealth of concealed history;  
So fully doth your Comment clear your rhimes  
By Observations, to our use and times;  
That while we suck these flowers, like Bees we do  
At once draw pleasure thence and profit too.  
While some men leave the Reader more perplexed  
With Comments far more hard than is the Text;  
Or with a safer ignorance pass by  
The ravelled mysteries it cannot untie.  
Others too full of fancy, (while their brain  
Runs riot) still decline their proper aim;  
So a rank Hobby with unbounded wing,  
Wantoness i'th' air, and stoops at every thing.  
Your Muse here flies not at so lose a rate,  
Whiles others Paraphrase, 'tis you Translate.  
No flyings out, your Muse though free, is bound  
To word for word, to render, not confound  
The Genuine sense so justly, that we might  
Say Ovid's self did dictate, you did write.  
No rack here shown to make a word confess  
Then what it signifies or more or less:  
No virgin Muse here forced, no violence,  
Or rape committed upon word or sense;  
Each word so fitly married, as if meant  
To show you wooed well first, than had consent.  
So Adam tranced in sleep, did wake from it,  
And found an helper for him meet and fit;  
Even so, exactly so, we see a face  
Translated in a glass, whose every grace,  
Each air, each line, each glance, each motion, all  
Agree in one, the same Original.  
Henceforth 'tis no more Ibis; you in this  
Have made it Ovid's Metamorphosis,  
More strange than all his changes, while you frame  
A total change, which wholly is the same.  
Ed. Bosworth.   

An INDEX of all the proper names in the Histories recited by OVID in his Invective against IBIS: which may be found by the number of the verse at each name here appearing: Thus.  

A.  
ABdera, Verse 465  
Absyrtus 433  
Achaeus 298. 540  
Achilles 373  
Achimenides 414  
Acrisius 462  
Actaeon 478  
Adimantus 325  
Adonis 564  
Aeacus 187  
Aegaeus 493  
Aegyptus 177  
Aetna 602  
Agamemnon 352  
Agenor 450. 570  
Ajax Oileus 340. 618  
Albula 138  
Alcaeus 54  
Alcibiades 32  
Alcidice 510  
Alcmaeon 340  
Alebas 322  
Alexander 295  
Alexander Pheraeus 320  
Allia 220  
Amilcar 388  
Amphiaraus 352  
Amphion 582  
Anaxarchus 568  
Antaeus 392  
Antiopa 534  
Archilaus 293  
Archilochus 54. 520  
Aristophanes 521  
Arsaces 463  
Astyanax 493. 561  
Atalanta 370. 600  
Athamas 340  
Atys 505  
Atis 454  
Atrax 468  
Atreus 427  
Augaeus 506   

B  
Battus 583  
Belides 177. 353  
Bellerophon 255  
Biblis 356  
Bistones 379  
Blesus 537  
Bôotes 610  
Brotheus 515  
Busiris 398  
Butes 506  
Buthes 612   

C  
Cacus 487  
Cadmus 443  
Caeyx 273  
Callimachus 55  
Cambyses 312  
Canace 356  
Capaneus 467  
Cassandrus 460  
certion 410  
Chaerilus 517  
Charybdis 383  
Cleombrotus 492  
Clitretho 360  
Cocalus 288. 507  
Codrus 626  
Caelum 271  
Coronis 447  
Corybantes 452  
Crambus 269  
Creon 602  
Creusa 602  
M. Curtius 442  
Cybele 452. 455  
Cyniphia 222  
Cyphenes 552   

D  
Daedalus 496  
Daedalion 273  
Demasicthon 580  
Danäe 462  
Danaus 177  
Dejanira 603  
Demodocus 270  
Diximanus 402  
Diomedes 380  
Dionysius 328  
Dirce 533  
Dolon 625  
Dosothöe 473  
Dryops 485   

E  
Egiale 347  
Elpenor 484  
Elysium 174  
Empedocles 595  
Erigone 610  
Erisichthon 423  
Eteocles and Polynices 35  
Ethalus 619  
Etracides 292  
Evenus 512  
Eupolis 528  
Eurydice 480  
Euripides 592  
Euristhenes 612  
Eurition 40  
Euryalus 285. 514. 630  
Eurydamas 329   

F  
Fata tria. 75  
Fatuarii 81  
Faunus 81  
Furiae 80   

G  
Galli 452  
Ganges 136  
Getae 635  
Glaucus 553. 554. 555   

H  
Haemon 560  
Halcyon 273  
Hannibal 388  
Harpagus 544  
Hector 331  
Hercules 346. 603  
Hermias 318  
Hippodamia 364  
Hippolytus 90. 575  
Hypermnestra 350  
Hypsiphile 482  
Hyacinthus 585   

I  
jaziges 136  
Icarius 610  
Idmon 502  
Ilice 497  
Ino 275. 495  
Io 620  
Irus 415  
Isis 620  
Ister 136  
I●ys 432  
Jupiter Hammon 295  
Ixion 175   

L  
Labyrinthus 372  
Laödamia 304  
Läocoon 482  
Lar 81  
Leander 588  
Lemnos 393  
Lestrigonia 386  
Leucon 308  
Leucothea 496  
Limone 335  
Linus 478 574  
Lycambes 54  
Lycaon 430  
Lycus 490  
Lycophron 530  
Lycurgus 343. 605  
Lycus 533   

M  
Macedon 473  
Magnates 395  
Mamerthes 545  
Marsyas 342. 550  
Medea 433. 602  
Medusa 552  
Meleager 600  
Melicertes 496  
Menaecius 445  
Menander 590  
Menius 472  
Mercuri●s 584  
Metius Sufferius 277  
Midas 296  
Milo 323 608  
Minos 288. 507  
Minotaurus 406  
Mnesymache 402  
Myrrah 357. 537  
Myrtilus 368. 535   

N  
Naphtha 606  
Nauclus 506  
Nauplius 338  
Neo●les 315  
Nereis 306  
Nessus 403. 603  
Niobe 584  
Niobole 54  
Nisus 360. 513. 630  
Nyctimene 357  
Nymphae 82   

O  
Ochus 314  
Oedipus 260. 376  
Oenomaus 365  
Ops 452  
Orchamus 572  
Orestes 346. 525  
Orpheus 598  
Orythus 269  
Osiris 450. 620   

P  
Pactolus 296  
Palaemon 496  
Palamedes 618  
Palinurus 592  
Paphages 500  
Patroclus 373  
Pelias 440  
Pelope 358  
Pelops 364  
Penares 81  
Penelope 390  
Pentheus 531  
Perdix 595  
Perillus 435  
Periphetes 403  
Perseus 462  
Phaeton 470  
Phalaris 437  
Philocteres 252  
Philomela 432. 535  
Phineus 263  
Phoenix 258  
Pygmalion 398  
Pityocamtes 405 407  
Planetae 215  
Pluto 423  
Plutus 416  
Polydice 360  
Polydorus 265. 578  
Polyidus 555  
Polymnestor 265. 578  
Polyphemon 405  
Polyphemus 267. 305  
Porphyrion 469  
Priamus 282  
Prester 467  
Procrustes 405  
Progne 432. 533  
Prometheus 289. 542  
Pterela 360  
Pyrrhus clarus 300  
Pyrrhus filius Achilles. 302   

R  
M. Attilius Regulus 280  
Remus 633  
Rhamnes 630  
Rhea 452  
Rhesus 628  
Rhodope 560  
Romulus 633   

S  
Salmonius 471  
Sardanapalus 310  
Sarmates 635  
Saturnus 272  
Satyri 81  
Sylla 384  
Scylla 360  
Scyron 405  
Scythae 135  
Semele 469  
Sinis 405  
Sisyphus 175  
Socrates 558  
Sphinx 375  
Styx 77   

T  
Tantalus 180. 432  
Taurica 382  
Telephus 253  
Tereus 432. 535  
Thamyras 270  
Theocritus 548  
Theodomas 485  
Theodotus 463  
Therodomas 382  
Theseus 90. 500  
Thessalus 284  
Thoas 382. 503. 510  
Thrace's 135  
Thraseus 395  
Thrasus 475  
Thyestes 427  
Tiberinus 512  
Tiber 138  
Tiresias 261  
Tityus 181  
Troja 250  
Tullia 362  
Tydeus 425   

V  
Vesta 456  
Ulysses 275. 384. 386. 390. 565. 618    

An INDEX of the common heads, deduced from the Histories recited in this Book.  

A  
ABomination, Verse 616  
Absence 390  
Adultery 335. 402. 528. 533  
Aequivocation 252  
Affliction 385. 432  
Agenor 442  
Age, golden, iron 625  
Alchemy 440  
Alectrion 592  
Ambition 36. 283 308. 362 437. 470. 530. 545.  
Ambidexter 278  
Aries 310  
Arrogance 270  
Art 370. 495. 553. 554  
Aspic 506  
Astrologers 501  
Astronomy 290  
Air 263   

B  
Babbling 583  
Bacchus 532  
Baldness 360  
Banished Princes 328  
Barbarossa 553  
Barrenness 533  
Basilisk 438  
Battology 583  
Bays 590  
Bees 540  
Believers 360  
Bestiality 620  
Beauty 563. 585  
Birth 506  
Blind-guides 262  
Blindness 268  
Body 484  
Burial 302   

C  
Calf (golden) 620  
Chameleon 632  
Censure 510  
Chastity 454  
Children 178. 260. 335. 355. 455. 468. 493. 585  
Circe 483  
St Nicholas Clerks 405  
Clowns 82  
Clymene 470  
Cock 592  
Cocks, why sacrificed. 465  
Columbus 553  
Commanders 331. 352  
Comparison 325  
Compulsion 403  
Confidence 604. 608  
Conjugal love 274  
Conqueror 494  
Conquest 216. 282  
Conscience 54. 80. 187. 255 285. 386. 525  
Constancy 538  
Content 460. 472  
Corn 181. 416  
Correction 467  
Covetousness 175. 265. 346. 386. 392. 460. 578. 583  
Counsel 395. 435. 437  
Counsel of God 436  
Country 432  
Cow 620  
Cowards 352. 425. 612  
Credulity 575. 604  
Crocodile 592. 601  
Crow 448  
Cruelty 382. 398. 425  
Curiosity 475  
Curse of Parents 258. 425. 575  
Courtesy 382  
Custom 553   

D  
Death 76. 310. 406. 482. 490. 465. 506. 528. 565. 590  
Death of the wicked 410  
Deformity 515  
Desires 470  
Despair 383  
Devotion 475  
Discourse 520  
Dissension 485  
Division 485  
Dogs 475. 573. 610  
Dog-days 475. 610  
Drunkards 82. 175. 268. 295  
Drunkenness 267. 442. 483. 605   

E  
Ears 448  
Earth 450. 452. 455. 563  
Eclipse 426  
Education 270  
Egyptian Sorcerers 595  
Eloquence 581. 583  
Enemies 280. 388  
Envy 182. 495. 558. 594  
Equity 288  
Event 345  
Europa 442  
Exaction 296  
Example 470  
Excuse of sin 533  
Excuse 350  
Executors 252  
Exhalations 470  
Experience 551  
Extortion 296  
Eyes 448   

F  
Faithfulness 545  
Fame 512. 522▪ 590  
Famine 423  
Fate 365  
Fathers 290. 480. 572  
Favourites 475. 490  
Fear 82. 320. 402. 493  
Fear of death 442  
Feasts 314  
Fire 263  
Fishermen 553  
Flatterers 355. 474  
Flowers 585  
Force 402  
Forgiveness 616  
Fornication 528  
Fortitude 538. 612  
Fortune 375. 634  
Frankincense 571  
Friends 283. 328. 513   

G  
geats 635  
Gifts of God 270  
Gifts different 341  
Gluttony 608  
Gods 69  
God 82  
Gods service 325  
Gold 462. 578  
Good men 442  
Goat scape 465  
Governors 382. 547  
Grace 555  
Gratitude 82  
Groves 423  
Guardians 265. 545   

H  
Haltionian days 274  
Hallifax law 490  
Hair 360  
Heaven 272. 490  
Hell 183.525  
Heresy 272.501.564  
Hermaphrodite 263  
Herod's death 423  
Honour 175.319.405 482  
Horse 380  
Hounds 478  
Humility 472  
Hunger 423  
Husbandmen 353.450  
Husbands love 480  
Huswife 82  
Hyaena 302  
Hypocrites 632   

I  
Idleness 340  
Jealousy 320. 345. 426  
Jests 504  
Ignorance 264. 463. 477  
Images in wax 600  
Imitation 469 472  
Immortality 492  
Impatience 266  
Impiety 423. 430  
Impostors 595  
Incendiaries 435  
Incest 36. 258. 355. 356. 560  
Indulgence 345. 470. 478 498  
Ingratitude 283. 292. 610.  
Inhospitality 430  
Insolence 405  
Insultation 330  
Intemperance 437  
Joseph 450  
Joy 492  
Judges 188. 262  
Judgements 365  
Ivory 432  
Justice 480. 634   

K  
Kingdom (rich) 500  
Kings 282. 310. 315. 322. 426. 436. 437. 472. 490. 494  
Kings fisher 273   

L  
Lapwing 432  
Laws 468  
Lawyers 315  
Learning 432. 463  
Levellers 405  
Liberty of subjects 325  
Life 310. 364  
Lightning 469  
Lions 382. 455  
Love 254. 358. 360. 588  
Love of the Country 441. 445  
Love of Christ 442  
Lust 293. 305. 308. 356. 358. 432. 478 551  
Lycurgus 545   

M  
Magistrates 335. 468. 623  
Magnanimity 612  
Man 290. 322. 375  
Manumission 415  
Marriage 178 355 470. 569  
Martyrs 566  
Masters 414  
Massinello 553  
Mean estate 383  
Melancholy 430  
Mercy 188. 425. 468. 525  
Michael 548  
Mind 448  
Misers 180  
Mocking 513. 524  
Moderation 480  
Moloc 430  
Money 625  
Monuments 512  
Morning 496  
Mortification 434  
Mother 495  
Mourning 498  
Multitude 531  
Murder 282. 303. 345. 383. 390. 515. 525  
Murder of ones self 492. 515  
Murmuring 468  
Muses 518  
Music 581  
Myrrh 536   

N  
Names 512  
Naphtha 601  
Nature 370  
Nature crossed 553  
Nightingale 432. 535  
Noah 531  
Nurses 495   

O  
Oaths 78  
Obedience 355. 455. 482. 548  
Offerings 378. 432  
Off-scouring 465  
Old age 440  
Opinion 523  
Oppressors 175. 315. 393  
Oratory 432  
Owls 358  
Ox 450   

P  
Pallas 551  
Paradise 174  
Parents 335. 426. 470. 493. 498  
Passion of women 610  
Passion 80  
Pastors 290  
Patience 375. 472  
Pa●ricide 346. 623  
Pedigree 453  
Pelican 485  
Perjury 583  
Persecutors 540  
Physician 433. 573  
Pilate 390  
Pity 485  
Pleasure 384. 480  
Plenties 500  
Poetry 432  
Poets 548. 594  
Policy 280. 365  
Polygamy 346  
Polypus 632  
Pope 405  
Potentates 393  
Poison 618  
Plague 580  
Prayer 303. 395 533. 571  
Preachers 481. 501. 518  
●●seditious, Mechanic 482  
Preservation of Princes 543  
Presumption 383. 608  
Pride 255. 274. 290. 295. 341. 472. 550. 580. 581  
Priests 482  
Princes 293. 330. 470  
Prodigality 341. 415. 423. 428  
Professors 595  
Promises 54  
Profaneness 340. 615  
Prosperity 274. 39 493  
Protection of God 332  
Protector 545. See Guardian.  
Providence 290. 385. 628  
Provocation 605  
Punishment 510  
Punishments of God 403. 600   

Q  
Quakers. 452   

R  
Railing 497. 547  
Reason 480  
Recompense from God 432  
Reformation 532  
Religion 382. 432  
Repentance 260. 262. 356  
Reputation 524  
Resurrection 432  
Rest 543  
Relatiation 264  
Revenge 330. 378. 426. 508. 602.605.618  
Reviling 468. 496  
Revolters 175  
Reward and punishment 174  
Riches 419  
Riddle of Sphinx 375  
Riot 312  
Robbers 403  
Ruffians 282  
Rulers 546   

S  
Sabbath 504  
Sacrilege 504. 615  
Sanctuary 303  
Satan 372. 375. 398. 444  
Schism 563  
Scholars 178 358. 432  
Secrecy 406  
Secrets 180. 360  
Secrets of God 469. 478  
Security 500 592. 631  
Sedition 274  
Seducers 338  
Sensuality 406  
Serpents  
Servants 414  
Servingmen 415  
Siege 250. 252. 300  
Shepherds 581  
Silence 448  
Sin 355. 358. 372. 462  
Sin, not single 265. 350  
Single life 598  
Sleep 505. 592  
Soldier 288. 340. 358. 404. 460 496. 625. 630  
Soldier of Christ 278  
Sorrow 274. 580  
Sodomy 293  
Soul 175 406. 483  
Soothsayers 501  
Spirits 268  
Stars 470  
Stepmothers 264  
Strangers 283. 288. 430  
Strength 608  
Students 180  
Subjects 322. 474  
Sufferings 426  
Sun 311. 392. 563. 450. 564  
Superstition 532  
Swallow 432. 535  
Swysse 592   

T  
Tale-tellers 175. 448  
Taxes 296. 315. 405  
Teachers 492  
Temple 312. 340. 615  
Temperance 483  
Temptation 300. 352. 370. 501. 370. 462. 475. 534  
Thales 501  
Thiefs 488. 583  
Thoughts 340  
Thunderbolt 469. 472  
Tithes 504  
Time 272  
Timists 435. 632  
Tongue 448. 570  
Treason 251. 314  
Treachery 268. 368  
Tribulation 174  
Trust 402  
Tumults 330  
Typhon 450  
Tyrants 175 382. 532   

V  
Valour 280  
Vainglory 550  
Venery 263. 288. 310  
Vengeance 402  
Virtue 383. 474. 488. 575  
Vice 383. 474. 485  
Unthankfulness 178. 270. 283. 370  
Vow 252  
Vulgar people. 470   

W  
War 268  
Warlike policy 388. 460  
Watching 592  
Wealth 175  
Whores 370. 380. 384. 483. 587  
Wife 178. 320. 349. 352. 395  
Wine 344. 358. 610  
Winter 563  
Wisdom 264. 434. 485. 501. 550. 551  
Wit abused 520  
Witchcraft 600  
Witness 557  
Women 300. 352. 355. 358. 360. 394. 542. 587. 604  
World 372. 385  
Wrath 36    

OVID'S INVECTIVE, OR CURSE AGAINST IBIS, Faithfully translated, and the Histories therein contained briefly explained, and variously applied.  

NOw fifty of my years are past and gone,  
And of my Muse be armed verses none:  
Nor, of so many thousands penned by me,  
One bloody verse of Naso's could you see,  
5. Not one did my book hurt, but me alone,  
When th' Artist by his Art was overthrown.  
One man (and that one thing is mighty wrong)  
Cannot endure my Title should live long.  
Who e'er he be, his name I'll spare; my Muse  
10. He hath compelled strange weapons now to use.  
He doth me grudge, exiled to Northern cold,  
My banishment in quietness to hold.  
My half-cured wounds he cruelly doth pierce,  
And openly my small offence rehearse.  
15. He stops her that's my own by Nuptials,  
From wailing her poor husband's Funerals.  
He, that should first the sudden flames allay,  
From midst the fire this Robber seeks a prey.  
Of my torn ship few pieces could I save,  
20. Yet he, the plank whereon I stand, would have.  
He works my banished age may want supply,  
Oh! he's more worthy of this misery.  
Gods were more kind, of which he's far the chief,  
That lets me not, though banished, want relief.  
25. Therefore deserved thanks to him I'll give,  
For so great favour, where, and whilst I live.  
Pontus shall hear this, and perhaps I may  
Vow by a nearer place to him, one day.  
But thou, that kickest me being down, 'gainst thee,  
30. Unto my power a mortal foe I'll be.  
Between the fire and water shall be love;  
The Sun and Moon shall both in one Sphere move;  
One coast shall East and West-winds too send forth,  
The Lukewarm South shall blow from freezing North;  
New love shall to the brother's flame return,  
Which old wrath severed, while their corpse did burn.   
E●eocles son of Oedipus king of Thebes by his own mother Jocasta, contracted with his brother Polynices, that each should yearly reign by course; the first year ended, Polynices being denied his turn, made war, wherein both were slain, and the flame of their bodies being burned together, parted.  
Wrath once kindled among neighbours is hardly reconciled, but among brothers scarcely extinguished by death itself, chief when a kingdom lies at stake. Tanta est discordia fratrum ● yet the brood of incestuous parents are more bloody than any other.  

Spring shall be Autumn, and the Summer shall  
Be Winter; Rising of the Sun, the Fall;  
 I'll disarm me, or renew old league  
40. Which thou by thy offences dost reneague;  
 this my wrath shall vanish, or my hate,  
While time and hours do last, one jot abate.  
Such peace between us, while I breathe, I'll keep,  
That is between the ravenous wolves and sheep.  
45. First I'll by verse encounter, though these feet  
For penning martial things are not so meet.  
A Champion first on yellow sand makes bright  
His spear, before he lists into the fight:  
So, sharpened weapons, yet, I will not use,  
50. Nor shall my spear thy hateful body bruise;  
My book shall not thy name or deeds reveal,  
And, who thou art, I will as yet conceal:  
But cease, else shall my keen jambick dart  
Shafts dipped in blood of false Lycambes heart.   
Lycambes not performing his promise, to marry his daughter Niobole to Archilochus, the Poet so bitterly inveyed against the father and daughter, in jambick verses, that they both hanged themselves.  
Critics derive fides from fio, because whatsoever is faithfully promised by word, should be fully performed in deed. 
B. Hall Med.  Some promise what they cannot do, as Satan to Christ; Some what they could, but mean not to do, as the sons of Jacob to the Shechemites: Some what they meant for the time, but after retreat, as Laban to Jacob, and Lycambes to Archilochus; so great distrust is there in man, either by impotency, or unfaithfulness. But let wilful promise-breakers take heed lest they break their own necks, Dabit Deus his quoque funem.  

55. Now as Callimachus did curse his foe,  
Ibis, so curse both thee and thine I do;  
In stories dark I'll wrap my book, as he;  
Although that method's seldom used by me:  
His form I'll follow in his Ibis now,  
60. And my own wont fashion disavow:  
And of thy name 'cause I'll no mention make,  
Do thou the name of Ibis also take.  
And, as something of night my verses have,  
So let thy life prove black unto thy grave.  
65. On New-year's day, and on thy birthday, let  
All with true lips this book to thee repeat.  
Ye Gods of Sea and Earth, and ye with Jove  
That better Kingdoms do enjoy above,   
Gods of the Sea are Neptune, Castor, Pollux, etc. Gods of Heaven that drink of Nectar, are Jupiter God of power, to help; Mars God of war, to fight; Apollo God of wisdom, to counsel; Liber God of wine, to comfort.  
To us Christians there is but one God, represented under those fictious names: He is All in All, our Help, Wisdom, Captain and Comfort.  

To me, to me with ears and hearts attend,  
And let my prayers have their weight and end.  
Hear me O Earth, hear me O boisterous Main,  
Hear me O sky, let me your favours gain  
O Stars, O Sun most glorious in thy rays,  
O Moon, appearing not alike always,  
75. O Night renowned for shade, O Triple Fate,  
That spin our lives to the appointed rate.   
The Gentiles made Night a Goddess, but gave her no Temple, nor sacrifice. She is painted like a woman, because that sex is more fearful; and so are men by night more than day: She bears a white child in the right hand, that is Sleep; and a black one in the left, that is Death.  
The three fatal Sisters are Clotho that holds the distaff; Lachesis that spins the thread of man's life; and Atropos that cuts it off.  
(1) There is a threefold estate of man, Birth, Life, Death. Hence the first Fate is called Nona, because man is born in the ninth month: the second Decima, because man liveth ten times ten years: the third Morta, Death. They are called Parcae, because Death spares none: They are the daughters of Jupiter and Themis, God of Heaven, and Goddess of Justice: for Death is God's just decree for sin.  

Styx, whom the Gods do swear by, that dost glide  
With murmuring noise through valleys by Hell side.   
Styx indeed is a Well in Arcadia, whose water is strong poison, so cold that nothing can contain it but a Mules hoof; with this Alexander is thought to be made away by Antipater, not without some aspersion upon Aristotle. The Poets feign, that this is a river in Hell, & that the Gods did swear by it, which oath if any brake he was for certain years debarred from Nectar and Ambrosia the food of Deities.  
1. Styx signifies Hate, because men dying begin to hate their former sins. Heathens durst not take the name of Styx in vain: but Christians take the name of God in vain; what then may such sinners expect, but to be debarred from Nectar and Ambrosia, life and immortality?  

Furies, whose tresses winding snakes do tie,  
80. Who at the gates of that dark prison lie.   
The three Furies, Allecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, daughters of Pluto and Proserpina, were called in heaven Dirae, in earth Harpyae, in hell Furiae.  
(1) These are taken for the tortures of a guilty conscience, where the torments of hell begin; or for the commotions of the mind, Covetousness, Envy, Discord; or for God's three judgements; Megaera, Plague, sweeping all away; Allecto, Famine, never satisfied; Tisiphone, Sword, a murderer, and revenger of sin. These are worshipped, not because they can do good, but lest they should do hurt.  

Fawns, Satyrs, Lares, Gods of low degree,  
Rivers, and Nymphs, and you that half-Gods be.   
1. Faunus' king of the Latins had a wife called Fauna or Fatua from prophesying, she read fortunes. Hence foretellers of things are called Fatuarii, and inconsiderate speakers Fatui. The Fauns are thought to have sent the disease called Ephialtes, or Nightmare, which Pliny terms Faunorum ludibria.  
Faunus was worshipped as a God for teaching Tillage and Religion; much more should we worship the true God, that giveth all good things. These Gods had horns to fright men to religion whom reason would not draw, Primus in orbe Deum fecit timor.  
2. Satyrs were lascivious creatures, their descent I find not, they were like the Fauns, with a m●ns head horned, all hairy, with Goat's feet; they were Deified because they should not hurt the cattle.  
(1) These are but rude rustic clowns, given to drinking, wenching, and dancing; ●acchus is said to be their companion, because ●ine provokes lust. This conception of Satyes may proceed from savage men, discovere● in woods by the civil, wearing beasts skins on ●heir tawny bodies, with the tail hanging do●n behind, and horns on their heads, either for ornament, or terror, such are yet among the West-Indians: 
Mr Sandys.  to these ignorance and ●ar ascribed a celestial Deity.  
3. Lares ●ere begot of Mercury and Lara: Some think, the L●rvae and Lemures to be the same; they are as Penates Gods of houses, and Lar is painted like a dog, a good housekeeper, which is kind to the household, fiene to strangers. Men sacrificed to him in the ch●ney, hence the house, and so the fire is called La.  
(1) Th●se were Gods of low degree among the ancient Romans, and what higher have the new?  
4. Nymphae quasi Lymphae, were Deities of the Waters; if sprung from Mountains, they were called Oreades; if from Woods and Trees, Dryads and Hamadryades; if from moisture of flowers, Napeaes; if from the Sea, Nereids; if from Rivers, Naiades.  
(1) These Nymphs were daughters of Oceanus, because Rivers return into the Sea fro● whence they came: So should we return thanks to God from whence comes all. These Nymphs are painted spinning; It is no sh●me for a Lady to be a Spinster or a housewife.  
(2) In Poets there be Gods of Haven, Earth, Hell, Woods, Waters, etc. T● show that God's power and providence d● reach unto every place. If I climb to ●eaven, thou art there; if to Hell, thou art t●ere also. Enter, presenter, Deus hic & ubiq potenter.  

God's old and new, that do remain till now  
From the first Chaos, listen to my vow:  
85. While 'gainst this hateful wretch with charms I pray,  
While grief and wrath their several parts display.  
Gods of each rank, let power my wish attain,  
And let no jot nor point of it prove vain  
As I do wish, Gods do; that all may be  
90. Thought by Pasiphäes' step-son said, ot me.   
Theseus' son of Aegeus, that took ● wife Ariadne daughter of Pasiphäe, whom Bacch● after married, being too credulous to the false acusation of his son Hippolytus, made by Phoedra ●s Mother-law, prayed Neptune to destroy him; ●e caused a Sea-calf to startle his Coach-horses, they threw him, dragged him, and killed him.  
(1) If Theseus his curse prevailed against his own son, why not Ovid's against his foe? 2. Note the malice of a Stepmother. 3. Take heed of a parents curse.  

Let him endure those pains which I omit,  
And let his torments far exceed my wit:  
I feign his name, but let my vote no less  
Vex him, or with the Gods find less success.  
95. He whom I curse goes now on Ibis' score,  
That knows he hath deserved these plagues, and more.  
I'll not delay, but speedily proceed  
To sacred Rites: all people hear and heed:  
Utter such doleful words become a Hearse,  
100 And let your faces overflow with tears,  
Come to him with bad Omens, and left feet,  
Put on such robes as be for Mourners meet.  
Ibis' put on thy sacrificing weed:▪  
Here stands the altar for thy death, make speed.  
105. The pomp's prepared for thy Obsequies;  
Hasten, lay down thy throat, cursed sacrifice.  
Earth thee no food, no water streams allow,  
A prosperous gale wind on thee never blow;  
Let neither Sun nor Moon on thee shine clear,  
110. Let no propitious Star to thee appear.  
Let Fire and Aire deny thee common use,  
To yield thee passage Sea and Land refuse.  
Wander thou poor and banished, haunt the door  
Of strangers, crusts with trembling mouth implore.  
115. From grievous pain be soul nor body free;  
Be night than day, day worse than night to thee.  
Be fit for pity, but still pitiless;  
Let man and woman laugh at thy distress.  
Let tears gain hate: be thou thought worthy mo●e  
120. To suffer, having suffered much before.  
And (which is rare) instead of favour, let  
The view of thy sad fortune envy get.  
Of pain want store, not cause: let panting breath  
Of thy tired life, miss long desired death.  
125. Then, let thy soul thy tortured corpse forsake,  
Yet no great haste in her departure make.  
'Twill be: by signs Apollo lately said,  
And an unlucky bird on left hand fled.  
That day shall ease me which takes thee away,  
130. That day shall ease me, though it long delay.  
First, this my life much envied by thee,  
Shall death cut off, which comes too slow to me;  
Before my kindled anger shall decrease,  
Or my deserved hate against thee cease.  
135. While darts shall Thracians, and while bows shall arm  
Jazigs, while Ister's cold, while Ganges warm.   
Thracians and Scythians were of old one nation, and were taught by Scythus Apollo to fight with darts.  
Jaziges, people near bordering to Scythia, fought with bows and arrows.  
Ister is a river in Germany called Danubius, it runneth into the Northern seas, therefore cold.  
Ganges, a river in Scythia, it runneth from the East, therefore it is lukewarm.  

While Oak in Woods, while Grass in Meadows grow,  
While Tuscan Tiber shall with water flow,  
I'll fight, nor shall thy death conclude my rage,  
140. But with thy ghost fierce skirmishes I'll wage:  
And when my breath to air is changed by fate,  
Then my revenging ghost thy ghost shall hate;  
Yea, then remembering thy old wrongs, I'll dare  
A bony shape into thy face to stare.  
145. If I by age, which Jove forbidden, shall die,  
If to be murdered be my destiny,  
If ship wracked in the Ocean I shall perish;  
And my drowned carcase foreign fish shall cherish,  
If ravenous birds shall make my fl●sh their food,  
150. And greedy wolves shall glut them with my blood:  
If earth I be vouchsafed, or if some friend  
Shall to a simple grave my bones commend:  
What e'er I be, from Styx I'll break away  
And on thy guilty face my cold hands lay.  
155. Awake thou shalt me see in silent night,  
A ghastly shade I will thy sleep affright.  
Do what thou wilt, before thy face I'll fly,  
And shriek: in no place shalt thou quiet be.  
Smart stripes shall sound, before thee hell-brands smoke  
160. Twisted with snakes, thy damned soul to choke.  
These Furies thee alive and dead shall tear:  
Thy life's too short all thy deserts to bear.  
May'st thou of burial and of mourning fail,  
Cast out with scorn let no man thee bewail.  
165. The people shouting, by the hangman's hand  
Thou shalt be dragged, hooks in thy bones shall stand.  
The fire that all consumes shall thee defy,  
Just earth to thy base corpse shall room deny.  
Vultures but slow, thy guts with beak and claw  
170. Shall pluck out, dog's thy perjured heart shall gnaw.  
And (though this honour mak●s thee proud) I wish  
That wolves may strive who first shall taste thy flesh.  
In parts far distant from th' Elysian coast,  
With damned shades shall dwell thy horrid ghost.   
Elysium, or the Elysian fields, was a pleasant place, as some report, between Britan and Thule, or in the Fortunate Islands; here the souls of good men are feigned to converse, enjoying all delights, whereof the chief was a fruitful tree; the way to it was through Acheron, Phlegeton, and other Hell-rivers.  
(1) The ancient being ignorant of true bliss, conceived, as the Mahometans do now, that reward after death consisted in the fruition of sensual delights: therefore to incite the mind to virtue, invented this fiction of happy fields; perhaps derived from the Terrestrial Paradise. (2) In Jerusalem above, our heavenly Paradise, is the tree of life, and pleasures for evermore. Hither we must pass through fire and water, persecutions and tribulations.  

175. There's Sisyphus, whose stone no ease doth feel;  
Ixion bound unto a restless wheel.   
1. Sisyphus, son of Aeolus, Secretary to Jupiter, a great Robber near the Corinthian Isthmos, for his treachery in divulging his Lords secrets, and oppression of men, was killed by Theseus, and cast into hell, where he rolls a stone up a hill that still tumbles down again.  
1. Learn by Sisyphus his torments to keep close the secrets of friends, chief of Princes. 2. Oppress not now on earth, lest you be punished in hell hereafter. 3. Trust not in wealth and honour; they roll as Sisyphus' stone. To day a high King, to morrow a low Beggar.  
2. Ixion, son of Phlegias King of Thessaly, killed his father-in-law, and after was a vagabond; Jupiter pitied his misery, expiated his crime, and received him in heaven to his own table; but hearing that he had tempted his Queen Juno, presented to him a cloud, of which he begat the Centauris: after he was thrown to the earth, thence, because he boasted that he lay with Juno, he was cast into hell, where he was bound to a wheel that still is whirled about.  
(1) Though God the true Jupiter hath pardoned our sins, and received us to mercy, we still offend him with spiritual fornication. (2) Covetous and ambitious men, when they think to enjoy real happiness, they find all like Ixion's cloud. (3) The spirits of Tyrants as Ixion are wracked on the wheel of restless cares. (4) The Heathens persuaded themselves the soul was immortal. (5) Ixion having tasted of Nectar could not die. (6) To what insolences and preposterous humours doth drunkenness provoke? Ixion being drunk presently lusts for Juno.  

And Belides, that husband-killing crew,  
That pour and pour, and still their work renew.   
Belides, the fifty daughters of Danaus, son of Belus, by the command of their father were married to fifty sons of their uncle Aegyptus, all whom they killed in one night, but Hypermnestra saved her husband Lynceus: those murderers in hell draw water in a sieve which is never filled.  
(1) Marriage with too near of kin is both incestuous & unfortunate. (2) What trust can we repose in others, when friends in our own bosoms shall prove treacherous, as these wives unto their husbands? (3) Children should obey their Parents, but not in evil. (4) Covetous, voluptuous, yea, and learned men, the more they draw, the more they desire. (5) Unthankful and hollow-hearted men are like these sieves: benefits are lost, secrets do run out of them. (6) Schoolmasters too oft find boys like sieves: they retain nothing which they learn. (7) All humane endeavours are done, and demolished like water, leaving no impression behind.  

There Tantalus, though apples be at hand,  
180. Doth starve and in a river thirsty stand.   
Tantalus' son of Jupiter and Plote, being admitted to the council of the Gods, revealed their secrets, he was therefore condemned to hell, where in plenty he is hungry and thirsty, up to the chin in a river, and with apples at his nose: for the water declines, and the apples fly from him.  
(1) See by Tantalus, how dangerous it is to be acquainted with, and how fatal it is to divulge the secrets of Princes. (2) A serious student, in contemplation can as willingly abstain from corporal food, as Tantalus against his will. (3) A rich miser in midst of plenty wants, not only what he hath not, but what he hath: I cannot be said to have more than I use, the rest of a world of wealth can please me no otherwise then by looking on, and so I can solace myself in the wealth of others.  

There's Tytius that giant long and great,  
Whose unconsumed heart is Vulture's meat.   
Tytius' son of Jupiter and Elara was hidden in the earth for fear of Juno, therefore he was called the son of the earth; he offering violence to Latona, was tumbled into hell, where his body covereth nine acres of ground, and his heart though eaten by a Vulture groweth still.  
(1) Corn, like Tytius by Jupiter, that is, the air and the earth, is fomented and produced, this covers many acres; by the arrows of Apollo, that is, the Sun's beams it is ripened for the Mower, to cut it down; it is eaten by the Vulture, that is, putrified by moisture, 
Mr Sandys.  in the heart of the earth, and then grows again. (2) The envious man's heart is eaten, and grows again, and may be well said to be hell. (3) No man of how many acres of land soever, of how great power soever, can avoid the hand of divine justice. (4) The conception of that fable was indeed translated from the fire of hell, that ever feeds upon the damned, that suffer without diminution. (5) All these forementioned punishments are Allegorically referred to the perturbations of the mind. The cares of Love which proceed from the liver, whose expense is daily repaired; is the Vulture of Tytius. The famine of Tantalus may be Covetousness. Ixion's wheel the circular afflictions of the guilty for sin past. Sisyphus' stone, still toiling ambition: and the Belides sieve, the unexpliable desires of the soul.  

One fury shall thy flesh whip to the bone,  
While thou thy faults confessest one by one.  
185. One shall thy mangled limbs 'mong Hell-snakes scatter,  
The third shall boil thy ugly face in water.  
Thy Ghost shall suffer thousand torments; yet  
For new supplies shall Aeacus strain his wit.   
Aeacus, Rhadamanthus, and Minos, sons of Jupiter, are feigned to be Judges in hell.  
(1) These may signify the three Effects of Conscience, to accuse, condemn, torment. (2) All Judges are called the Sons of God, as these three were Sons of Jupiter. (3) Before these three Judges none appeared but naked souls; here we have something about us that may corrupt an earthly Judge. And it is great shame that there is more justice in hell then is in earth. (4) Aeacus and Rhadamanthus were both mild, Minos only cruel. To show that Mercy should triumph above Justice. Two for one.  

Torments of ancient souls he'll lay on thee,  
190. Ease to old damned spirits thou wilt be.  
Sisyphus' thy rolling stone to Ibis give;  
Now shall the wheel a new Ixion drive.  
He's that in vain shall catch at streams and fruit,  
His heart shall feed the bird, and still recruit.  
195. Another shall succeed when one death's past;  
Unto thy pains no hour shall be last.  
Some few I'll touch, as if from Ida's top  
I take a leaf, or from the Sea a drop.  
Of Hybla flowers can I the number know;  
200. Or Saffron crooks that in Cilicia grow?  
Or when sharp winter on the North wings fly,  
How many Hailstones upon Athos lie.  
Nor can my words count all thy torments now,  
Couldst thou a thousand tongues on me bestow.  
205. Such, and so many woes shall thee invade,  
That me (I think) to tears they may persuade.  
Those tears shall prove long happiness to me,  
Sweeter than laughter will that weeping be.  
Unlucky waist thou born (so Gods designed)  
210. And at thy birth no lucky Planet shined.  
Nor Venus, nor did Jupiter appear,  
Nor Sun, nor Moon moved in their proper sphere.  
Neither did he whom Maia bore to Jove  
Smile, with least influence or aspect of love.  
215. But those ill-promising and disastrous Stars,  
Old crabbed Saturn, and Bloodthirsty Mars.   
These are seven Planets: Saturn and Mars, always very bad: Jupiter and Venus always very good: Sol, Mercury, and Luna indifferent, as they are in conjunction, or aspect with others.  
(1) Astra regunt homines, sed regit astra Deus: Stars govern men, but God the Stars. I think we parents were born under the first two; I hope our children were born under some of the last.  

And thy birthday, lest comfort thou might see,  
Was black with clouds, and foul as foul may be.  
This day our Calendar did Allia call  
220. That brought forth Ibis' common plague to all.   
The Romans at the River Allia received a bloody blow by Brennus: therefore they put this day being the 16. of July, in their Calendar among the unlucky.  
Too many such Allian days have happened within few years passed in Europe.  

When he from's filthy mother's womb did fall,  
First in Cyniphia did this monster crawl.   
Cynips, or Cyniphos, is a river in Africa, near which are many tall goats: thither divers kinds of beasts do come for water, and engendering together, do beget monsters.  
Such a monster Ovid calleth Ibis; he hath many kindred in the world.  

Near to the place there sat a screetching Owl,  
That grievous notes with hideous voice did howl.  
225. The Furies him in muddy water dipped,  
That from the swarthy lake of Styx had slipped.  
His breast smeared o'er with hellish serpent's gall,  
Thrice their bloud-stained hands they clapped all.  
They season with a Bitch's milk his throat,  
230. This food they first had for the baby got.  
From this dams teat this whelp hath fierceness drawn,  
Therefore, with dogged words, doth bark and yawn.  
With iron-coloured clouts they wrap the chit,  
Took from base corpse late thrown into a pit.  
235. Departing, they a fire of green wood make,  
And at his nose the smoky firebrands shake:  
He wept, when once his tender eyes felt smoke,  
And thus one of the Furies to him spoke:  
Such tears as now we have provoked, shall,  
240. And not without just cause, for ever fall.  
Clotho gave her assent this doom should stand,  
And spun a coal-black thread with her left hand.  
I list not now, quoth she, sum all thy fate,  
Ere long a Prophet shall the whole relate.  
245. I am that Prophet, I thy destiny  
Will read: the Gods fulfil my Prophecy:  
Let real weight unto my words accrue,  
That by thy torments thou may'st find them true.  
And, lest thy sorrows may example need,  
250. Let thine the Trojan miseries exceed.   
Troy was a city in Asia the less. Paris, son of Primus King of Troy, took away Helena wife of Menelaus a Grecian King, and kept her in Troy, therefore the Grecians besieged the city, and in the tenth year of their siege burned it.  
(1) Woeful experience hath taught us, by too many a short siege, what lamentable effects a long one will produce. Lord defend our Troynovant. In wars without send us peace within.  

As Paeans son clubbed Hercules his heir,  
So in thy thigh a poisoned ulcer bear.   
Philoctetes, son of Paean, swore to Hercules, dying on the hill Oe●e, that he would never reveal his grave; to bind which trust, Hercules gave him his arrows. Without these arrows Troy could not be stormed. Philoctetes, earnestly solicited by Ulysses, would not express by words, but gave signs with his foot, where Hercules was buried. Philoctetes carrying those arrows towards Troy, was wounded by one of them in that part which divulged the secret.  
(1) In trust be just; if thou be executor, perform the will of the Testator: Much more let Christians keep the covenant in the Testament of Christ, on their part. (2) Without the arrows of Hercules Troy could not be taken: without the arrows of God's judgement for sin, soldiers besiege us in vain, (3) Equivocate not (as Philoctetes did, and Papists do) by words, nor by signs or tokens. (4) Though treason prevail, the Traitor is punished. (5) God punisheth the member that sinneth, as Dives tongue and Philoctetes foot.  

Be vexed no less than he that Hind did suck,  
Who by an unarmed man, being armed was struck.   
Telephus, son of Hercules and Auge, King of Mysia, was nursed by an Hind; hindering the Grecians army to pass through his Country towards Troy, he was wounded by Achilles in his thigh: nothing could cure the wound but the rust of the same spear that gave it, which Telephus desired, and obtained. But some conjecture that he was cured by the Magnetical ointment applied to the spear.  
(1) It is no piece of safe policy in a Prince, to suffer a foreign Prince to enter into his territories: For give him an inch and he will take an ell. (2) If an army be terrible to a great kingdom, what may it be to a small Country? (3) They say the love of a Lady that wounded the heart can cure it, as Achilles his spear did Telephus; doubtless our offended God can wound by his darts of judgements, and cure us by his salve of mercy.  

255. Or who in foreign parts from horse fell dead,  
Whose beauty had his life endangered.   
Bellerophon, a comely person, being falsely accused of Antaea or Stenobaea, wife to King Praetus, for tempting her chastity, was sent by Praetus with Letters to Jobas, desiring that he would kill him; he employs him against the Solymi, Chimaera and Amazons: by the help of the winged horse Pegasus, he overcometh them all. For which noble acts Jobas gave him his second daughter, and half his kingdom. Antaea hearing of this hanged herself. Bellerophon proudly mounting his horse towards heaven, fell off and died.  
(1) Note the malice of an harlot, missing her aim she will plo● thy undoing: Thus Potiphars wicked wife abused honest Joseph; but providence will always preserve the innocent, and bring to a shameful end their persecutors. A good Conscience like a brazen wall retorteth all false accusation upon the head of the enemy. (2) Christians must fight against Solymi, Chimaera and Amazons, the world, the flesh, and the Devil; and raise their souls on the wings of meditation, as a Pegasus up to heaven. (3) The Proverb is fully verified in Stenobaea, Harme watch, harm catch. Envy not prevailing, turns fiercely upon itself. (4) Some do physically take Bellerophon for the moisture of the earth, exhaled by the Sun, and falling down again: but the morality of this story may be this; Pride will have a fall.  

Or like Amyntors' son, be thou struck blind,  
And trembling grope with staff thy way to find.   
Phoenix, son of Amyntor, by his Mother's advice, lay with his Father's Concubine: for which bold attempt his Father cursed him: he flying to Peleus, was made Tutor of his son Achilles: he is reported to have first invented the Greek Letters; but at last he was struck blind.  
(1) Climb not thy father's bed, with Phoenix, and Reuben, lest a curse befall thee. (2) Fellow not thy own mother's counsel to do evil. (3) Take heed to thy ways, and incur not a parent's imprecation: for it happeneth too often very fatal.  

See thou no more, than whom his daughter led,  
260. That killed his Father, did his Mother wed.   
Oedipus, son of Laius' King of Thebes, and Jocasta, whom the Oracle foretold should kill his Father, and marry his Mother, as soon as he was born was by his Father delivered to his shepherd to be killed; the shepherd pitying him, bored two holes in his feet (whence, he gained the name of Oedipus, that is swollen-foot) and hanged him on a tree. Phorbas the King of Corinth's shepherd found him, and gave him to his Queen being then childless; when he came to man's estate, he unawares killed his Father, and married his Mother, which when he once knew, he plucked out both his eyes, and was led by his own daughter Antigone.  
(1) Let not childless parents repine, or be impatient: better want, then have a son like Oedipus. (2) Too many, by ill courses, bring their father's grey hairs with sorrow to the grave. Therefore Augustus Caesar wished, that he never had been married, or never been a father. (3) Oedipus repenting, plucked out his eyes. Eyes are the holes through which sin enters into the soul, yet we must not follow his example: when our Saviour bids us pluck out the offending eye, the meaning is, that it is better lose an eye, than a soul, better to part with a sin as dear as thy eye, then lose heaven.  

Or that old Judge i'th' merry case of Jove,  
That famous in Apollo's art did prove.   
Tiresias, son of Udaeus, one of the five captains that survived the unnatural war of Cadmus, killing of a female Serpent, was turned to a woman; long after, killing a male, was turned into a man again Being a fit and elected Judge between Jupiter and Juno, he gave this sentence, That the woman had nine ounces in the vigour of Love, and the man but three; therefore Juno deprived him of his sight, which Jupiter supplies with the gift of Prophecy.  
(1) Histories (if we may believe them) tell us, that some women have been turned to men, not men to women. (2) Tiresias judgement between Jupiter and Juno, was in this kind just; as Jupiter is taken for the element of fire, and Juno for the air: For the air confers thrice as much as the fire to the generation of vegetables; moisture yielding the chiefest part of the materials, and heat producing form and maturity. Nor, without cause, among Grammarians, are the two superior elements, Fire and Air, of the masculine gender, and the two inferior, Earth and Water, Feminine; because the superior have predominancy over the inferior, as the husband hath or should have over his wife. (3) As Tiresias was both male and female: so are turncoats, hodiè mihi, cras tibi, to day mine, to morrow thine; So is the multitude, Neutrum modò, Mas modò vulgus. (4) Many that are blind in body are quick-sighted in their mind, as Tiresias. (5) When a great power, as Juno, doth oppress us, a greater, as Jupiter, may relieve us. Saepè prement Deo, fert Deus alter opem. Lucian reports that Tiresias is feigned to be male and female, among the Grecians, because he divided the wand'ring stars into male and female.  

Or he be whose devise a Dove was guide,  
Where Pallas ship should on the Ocean ride.   
Phineus, son of Agenor, had by Cleopatra two sons, Orythus and Crambus, whose eyes by the counsel of his second wife Idaea he plucked out; in revenge whereof the Gods plucked out his. He advised the Argonauts to follow the Dove which Pallas should send, and so avoid the rocks called Symplegades.  
(1) Phineus may be feigned to have lost his sight, because he was so blind with avarice, that he could not look unto himself, nor afford necessaries unto life, which is contented with a little. (2) Stepmothers, like Idea, seldom love the children of a former wife: Injusta noverca. (3) Retaliation is a just judgement of God, an eye for an eye. (4) Parents that blind their Children with ignorance, not allowing them education, God will punish; so that the blind shall lead the blind. (5) Let every Elymas that blind men's souls and draw them from the faith, expect not only corporal blindness, but utter darkness. (6) If you will avoid the offensive rocks of schism and heresy, follow the true Pallas, Christ, the wisdom and the Dove which he hath sent, the spirit of truth, so will you safely arrive at the haven of heaven: Mean time, from blindness of heart good Lord deliver us.  

265. Or he whose eyes, the infant's Gold surprised,  
Which to her son the mother sacrificed.   
Polymnestor, King of Thracia, received into his Guardianship (with a vast sum of money) Polydorus son of Priamus King of Troy; whom when Troy was sacked, coveting the money he inhumanely killed. Hecuba, mother of the child, sent for Polymnestor, pretending to deliver him another sum, when he came, she scratched out both his eyes.  
(1) Guardians should be defenders, not destroyers of their Pupils. (2) Covetousness is the root of all evil. (3) No sin comes single, Robbery and Murder will hang together. (4) The natural, much more the violent death of a child moves a mother to impatience.  

As Aetna's shepherd whose blind fate of old,  
One Telamus Eurymons son foretold.   
Polyphemus was a shepherd on the hill Aetna, and chief of the Cyclopes, he had one eye in his forehead, which Ulysses put out with a firebrand, when he had besotted him with wine, after he had eaten four of his men, that came to lodge in his cave. One Telamus prophesied his misery. These Cyclopes made thunderbolts for Jupiter, and chariots for Mars.  
(1) Injustice armed with power is most outrageous and bloody; but Polyphemus was more savage than the West Indians, these eat but their enemies only, he his guests. (2) These Cyclopes may be evil spirits, whose service God sometimes doth use in raising thunder and storms, to punish the wicked; Polyphemus, or Beelzebub is the chief, he devoured Ulysses men, that is, mankind; but the true Ulysses, Christ, pouring into him the red wine of his wrath, thrust out his eye, restrained his power. When Polyphemus the shepherd's eye is blind, what a blind guide hath the sheep? (3) When there was no King in Israel, the light was quenched, the Eye was out, then followed intestine wars, and Vulcan's sons did work for Mars.  

Like Phineus sons, whose eyes one gave and took,  
270. Like Thamyras, and Demodocus look.   
Orythus and Crambus their eyes by their Stepmothers counsel were plucked out by their own father Phineus, whom divine vengeance after blinded for his unnatural cruelty, and sent Harpies to eat his meat, and defile his table.  
(1) Mark the just judgement of God upon an unmerciful father, provoked by the false suggestions of a female night-crow. (2) These Harpies might be covetous desires, not suffering him to eat what was set before him; himself polluting it with his own sordid disposition.  
2. Thamyras, or Thamyris, a Poet, and Musician, comparing himself with the Muses for skill, was deprived of his harp and sight.  
(1) Boldness puts men forth before their time, they run before they are sent, like Lapwings, with some part of the shell upon their heads: so it follows, as they began presumptuously, they proceed unprofitably, and end not without shame; every man condemning them of arrogance and ignorance: and indeed these are inseparable twins, for, who is bolder than blind Bayard? as the proverb passeth.  
3. Demodocus was an admirable harper, but he was blind.  
(1) No man is so happy to have all gifts, no man is so miserable but to have some: Of the two I had rather be blind Homer, with his acute mind, than nimble-eyed Lynceus with his obtuse capacity. (2) Note that Ovid wisheth to Ibis, not any of these men's good qualities, but blindness.  

Let one thy members crop, as Saturn that  
Wherewith his ancient father him begat.   
Saturn son of Coelum and Thetis, cut off his father's testicle●, the blood whereof engendered the Furies.  
(1) Saturn, that is Time, cut off the genitals of Caelum, that is heaven; because the heavens at last shall grow old, and by time shall lose the power of generation. (2) Gelder's of ancient Records, Fathers and Scripture, rebel against heaven like Saturn; and hence proceed those Furies of Heresy, Dissension and Schism.  

To thee let swelling Neptune prove the same,  
As him whose wife and brother birds became.   
Caeyx's King of Thracinia, son of Lucifer, his brother Daedalion being turned to a hawk, went to the Oracle, promising his wife Halcione, to return with speed; She seeing his dead body in the sea, would have drowned herself, but the Gods turned her into a Kings-fisher, and him into a Sea-mew.  
(1) When the Halcions lay eggs, the sea is calm; hence peaceable days are called Halcionian, or Alcian days. (2) Alcione was the daughter of Aeolus that could imprison the winds; and a dead Kings-fisher hanged up by the beak will turn her belly to the wind. (3) The Male and Female accompany all the year, not for lust but love. I wish no less modesty and love in all married people. (4) Moderate sorrow for friends is comely; immoderate dangerous; it made Halcione desperate. (5) These Halcions were begot of the Morningstar Lucifer, and calmed the sea, but some soul birds in the world, begot of hellish Lucifer, do raise storms and disturb the sea of the State, laying eggs of dissension, and fishing in troubled waters.  

275. Or the wise man on shipwrecked plank that sat,  
Whom Semele's sister did compassionate.   
Ino sister of Semele, advised Ulysses to leave the ship and trust to swimming, offering him an immortal ribbon to gird his paps; he refused her counsel, but at last being shipwrecked, he betook himself to a plank, and so was saved.  
(1) Ino was called Matuta, Goddess of the sea and the morning, perhaps because the morning seems to rise out of the sea; she is feigned to appease the sea, because winds that rage by night use to fall in the morning. (2) The World is a sea; the Church is a ship, if we leave this ship, we may be drowned eternally; when the Church is torn in pieces by schisms and heresy, we must not leave it so, but hold fast to one plank, where two or three are gathered together in the name of Christ, keeping the ribbon, the bond of love and unity.  

And left this kind of death but one should know,  
At two horse tails in pieces drawn be thou.   
Metius Suffetius, General of the Alban, stood with his army, expecting the event of the battle between the Romans, with whom he was in league, and the Fidenates; on purpose to incline to the prevailing party. Tulbus Hostilius having got the day, condemned Metius to be drawn in pieces between two horses.  
(1) True valour doth more respect and honour a professed constant foe, than an unconstant ambodexter friend: Pietas & in host probatur. (2) As Metius being alive was in mind between two, so is he in body being dead. Thus commonly Jack-on bothsides come to an untimely, untoward end. (3) Pretend not God, and intent the Devil; serve not God for baalam's wages of iniquity. (4) Too many have fought, not so much for the Cross of Christ, as of the Coyn. Cruxillos maneat.  

Die thou as he whom Carthage soldiers caught,  
280. That seorned a Roman should be changed or bought.   
Marcus Attilius Regulus Consul of Rome, was in battle taken captive by the Carthaginians, and sent to Rome to return their captives in exchange for him; he dissuadeth the Romans, and returneth to the enemy, they cut off his eyelids, that he might not sleep, and put him in an hollow tree full of sharp nails; there he died.  
(1) One pearl is of more value than Millions of barley corns. One Sun more glorious than a numerous company of Stars. One wise and magnanimous Leader is of greater price than a numberless army of common-souldiers: such an one will rather endure a torturing death, then live, that his Country may thereby suffer disgrace or damage. (2) Heroic valour is more expressed by dying honourably, in a good cause, then saving his life, by a base submission, upon dishonourable terms. (3) A mature final battle hath been accounted less disadvantageous than frivolous delay by exchange of captives. (4) When our enemies take off our eyelids, our eyes are made the more open to behold the heavens. (5) Persecutors are as pricks in our sides: Lord prick their hearts to repentance.  

God's thee assist, no more, than th' Altar did  
Of Jove Hyrcaeus him that there was hid.   
Priamus' King of Troy fled to the Altar of Jupiter Hyrcaeus; whence Pyrrhus dragged him by the hair of the head, and slew him.  
(1) Princes are subject to mutability and misfortunes, as much, if not more, than subjects. (2) Bloodthirsty Ravilliacks fear neither God, nor Man, respect a Prince no more than a Peasant, regard a Temple as little as a Tavern (3) Smite the Shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. Fight not against small or great, but against the King, 2 Chron. 18.30. An Helmet is safer than a Crown to defend the head.  

As from mount Ossa Thessalus was thrown,  
So headlong from a rock be thou cast down.   
Thessalus, King of Thessala, most courteously entertained a stranger called Euryalus: Walking together on the hill Ossa, Euryalus thence cast him down and killed him, and so possessed his kingdom.  
(1) Some heretofore in the shape of strangers have entertained Angels, but some, since, have in the form of Angels of light entertained worse than Euryalus. (2) Cherish not a snake in thy bosom, lest it sting thee to death. (3) Ambition doth think Aceldama the nearest way to a throne. (4) Ingratitude was the first of sins, and is the worst. Call a man unthankful, and then tell him what you will. Si ingratum dixeris, omnia dixeris.  

285. As of Euryalus th'Usurper, let  
The flesh of thee to greedy snakes be meat.   
Euryalus, that killed King Thessalus, had his head eaten with Snakes.  
(1) Divine justice will not suffer murder, chief of a kind and noble Thessalus, to be unrevenged. (2) These snakes may be torments of the soul for sin. What joy is it, with Damocles to enjoy all things, that may content all my senses, when the point of a naked sword lies at my throat, or which is far worse, a sting in my conscience▪ A good conscience is a continual feast, and a bad one a perpetual hell. From bloodguiltiness good Lord deliver us.  

Let scalding water poured on thy pate,  
As Minos, hasten thy appointed sate.   
Minos' King of Crete married Pasiphäe: a Bull by means of a wooden Cow made by Daedalus, had carnal commerce with the Queen. Daedalus fearing the King's revenge, flies to Cocalus King of Cilicia; Minos pursueth him, and is kindly entertained by Cocalus: The daughters of Cocalus, pouring water upon his head in the Bath, killed him.  
(1) Though Minos, for his equity and strict life on earth be feigned to be Judge in hell, he had a lose Queen to his wife on earth. And indeed the Proverb is as true as trivial; The honester man the worse his luck. (2) The history of Pasiphae runneth thus. A captain named Bull, incontinently used the Queen: Mars affecteth Venus: A soldier aims at the fairest mark (that is no Bull.) (2) Many pats have been scalded with the daughters of Venus, and live longer than Minos, but it was hot service. (3) Be not so unhospitable to entertain a stranger and kill him; that is the part of a Crocodile.  

Or as Prometheus' fierce, not free, thy blood  
290. To lofty Eagles be continual food.   
Prometheus' son of japetus and Themis, because he made a man of clay, and stole fire from heaven to put life into him, was by Jupiter bound to a pillar on the hill Caucasus, where an Eagle eats his heart, which daily reneweth, and Pandora's basket of miseries do afflict him.  
(1) Prometheus might be an Astronomer, that upon the hill Caucasus continually looked on the Celestial fires, that is the Stars, and observed the motion of the Sun, and so his heart was eaten with cares and studies. (2) Man may be called Promethus, for of all sublunary creatures Man is most prudent, and provident; yet none more subject to Pandora's box of miseries than Man, none more eaten with the Eagle of cares then Man. (3) Prometheus is said to have first found out the use of fire among men, therefore after death, is honoured with Festivals; as Vulcan the God of Fire, and Ceres the Goddess of Corn. To this (me thinks) alludeth that simple (I wish not sinful) Ceremony in some parts of England, upon St Clement's night, among Brewers, Bakers, smith's, and such hot artificers. But Morally, Prometheus as the word importeth, is the Mind foreseeing things to come, with prevention of evil. Epimetheus is Knowledge after events, whose daughter is Repentance. Hence came the Proverb, Praestat esse Prometheum, quam Epimetheum. Better beforehand to prevent, then after to repent.  

Be slain and drowned like Etracides,  
The fifteenth by descent from Hercules.   
Etracides (concerning whose right name many cavil) lovingly entertained one Cleba, son of Dorus, affording him all things necessary; but in the end this unthankful guest slew his so courteous friend.  
(1) It is most horrid and devilish ingratitude to take life from him that preserved ours. Jupiter, the feigned God of heaven is called Hospitalis. It was a heinous offence to the Gods for the host to kill his guest, how much more heinous for the guest to kill his host?  

As to Amantus son, a boy with hate  
And sword, thy lustful love remunerate.   
Archeläus the twelfth King of Macedonia, was slain by a boy called Cratera, whom he too lasciviously affected.  
(1) The least offence or transgression in a Prince, is like a great Mole in the face, more conspicuous then in any other part; much more is open Lasciviousness, most of all that unnatural sin of man with man, called Sodomy. To this abominable vice the people of Hispaniola were addicted. 
Purchas.  But this loathsome sin had among the Turks this loathsome punishment; they cut a hole in the paunch of a new killed beast, and thrusting the offender's head into this dung-wallet, they carried him about the towns in pomp. Dignum patellâ operculum.  

295. Let treacherous cups be mingled unto thee,  
As him that son of horned Jove would be.   
Alexander the great Monarch of the word, became so proud by his victories, that he affected to be called the son of Jupiter Hyrcaeus, or Hammon; he was excessively given to wine; at last he was poisoned by his own butler Iöla.  
(1) Jupiter is horned, because in a Ram's shape he procured water for thirsty Bacchus, therefore Bacchus built him a Temple and an Image like a Ram. But proud men may better be called the sons of Lucifer the Devil, then of Jupiter a God. Pride is a worm that eats down the tallest gourds of honour; one dram of it poisons a great measure of virtues. Let us not be more afraid of doing good things, then of pride when we have done them well. (2) A drunkard is worse than a beast, for a beast will drink no more than will do him good; and how can he be a ruler of men, that is not his own man, nay scarce a man? It is not for kings to drink wine, it is not for Princes to drink strong drink, Prov. 30.4.  

Die as Achaeus whom his subjects took,  
And hanged him headlong in the golden brook.   
Achaeus King of Lydia, because he exacted more than ordinary tributes, was by his subjects hanged with his head downward, in the river Pactolus, whose streams are feigned to be golden. Now Midas having obtained of Bacchus, that all he touched might be gold, was almost famished; for his food became gold; by Bacchus' counsel he washed himself in this river and was restored; Since the streams are feigned to be golden.  
(1) Pactolus may be called golden, because it enriched the Country by watering it; or because Midas spent much money in cutting it into small streams. (2) Nothing can quench the flame of the high hill Chimaera but only earth, nothing can satisfy the muddy thoughts of the covetous mind but the grave; like a hog, he is never good till he be hanged by the heels. The unsatisfied disease of this dropsy of covetousness drives a man on beyond reason or justice to cover more and more, till this man of metal, like a Tinker breaks his back with his own budget. (3) If any Publican hath exacted or extorted, better for him, with Zacheus, restore it , then with Dives hang in the lake of fire.  

As once Achilles' Nephew whom they call  
300. Famous, a foe thee with a tilestone maul.   
Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, at the siege of Argos, was wounded by a tilestone off the wall, thrown by a woman's hand upon his head. He was surnamed Clarus, for his valour.  
(1) It is foolhardy rashness, chief for a General, to venture too nigh a besieged wall, for he is not sure of a safe retreat and to come  to his tent; witness Hereford. (2) Providence may guide a Woman's hand to do more than a whole Army; as Judith to Holophernes; Jael to Sisera. (3) When thy spiritual enemies shall besiege thy soul, take up Christ the cornerstone, the seed of the woman, he will bruise the serpent's head.  

Thy bones (like Pyrrhus) shall have rest not where,  
That on th' Ambracian coast dispersed were.   
Pyrrhus' son of Achilles, was slain by Orestes, 
Virgil. 3. Aen.  and his bones were scattered in Ambracia, a coast of Epirus.  
(1) It is a most noble act in a conqueror to vouchsafe his conquered foe an honourable grave, if not a monument; For the glory will be his as much, yea more than the dead persons. So it is most sordid cowardice to tear a carcase, or abuse the dead in word or deed.  

Defuncti tumulum turpis Hyaena fodit.  
Hyaena that most filthy beast  
Digs up the graves of men at rest.  
Or as Achilles' Niece let darts thee kill,  
This sacrifice will pease Dame Ceres well.   
The last of Pyrrhus' blood was Nereis and Läodamia; the younger in a tumult, though she fled to the Altar of Ceres, was slain by one Milo, for which the Goddess plagued that Country; the murderer fell mad, cut his flesh, and within few days died.  
(1) It was forbidden the Jews by the law of Moses, to prosecute him that was unwillingly guilty of killing his neighbour, if he fled to a city of Refuge; how heinous then is it to murder the guiltless even at the Altar? (2) For one man's offence a whole Country may be punished, but the offender manifold. (3) In tumults and troubles fly unto God, the best sanctuary and refuge in distress. (4) If I must be slain, let me be slain in my prayers.  

305. As Nephew to that King of whom I spoke,  
Thy Mother's hand thee with Cantarides choke.   
Nereis wife of Gelon King of Cilicia, with green venomous worms, named Cantarides, poisoned her own son Magnates, because he would not yield to her horrid provocation to lust.  
(1) Covetousness and lust admit of no bounds or limits; the one will rob a father of money, the other a son of chastity. (2) In all carnal temptations, resolve upon the question with honest Joseph; How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?  

A whore by stabbing thee may honour gain,  
As she by whom was faithless Leucon slain.   
Leucon committed adultery with the wife of Oxilocus, who was his own brother, and in hope to enjoy the kingdom, killed the King; in revenge the Queen killed him; for which fact she was called Pia.  
(1) Hunters knowing that the Panther much desireth the poysonful Aconite, 
Dallington. Aph.  do hang it up in vessels above their reach, they greedily leap and strain themselves, and so are taken; so do ambitious men that aim at honour too high for their reach, and too great for their merit. For a heart overgrown with this r●nk poison, neither admits the beams of grace to mollify the hardness, nor the bounds of nature to restrain the swelling, but is unnaturally carried on to wrong those of his own blood. (2) Unchaste love doth justly turn to revenging hate.  

Thee and thy best things int' a bonfire send:  
310. Sardanapalus so his life did end.   
Sardanapalus the last King of Assyria, was so effeminate that he blushed not to spin with Harlots, in a woman's habit; being conquered in battle, he fled to his Palace, where he made a fire, and therein burnt himself and all that he had.  
(1) Venery is the mother of Misery. (2) When the head is weak, the body cannot be strong; Like King like People. (3) Sardanapalus lived basely, died nobly; but Furor est, ne moriare, mori. It is a desperate madness to avoid death by killing myself. (4) Many as Balaam would gladly die the death of the righteous, but live not the life of the righteous. Qualis vita, finis ita. Those that live ill, seldom die well; A good life seldom meets a bad death.  

Let whirlwind sands thee suffocate, as those  
That Hamon's Temple to pluck down arose.   
Cambyses King of the Medes, sent an army to demolish the temple of Jupiter Hammon; but all the soldiers were destroyed by storms and sands.  
(1) Jupiter Hammon may be the same with Ham, 
Sandys Met.  son of Noah, who was the original of Idolatry, he on his helmet wore the carved head of a Ram. Or Hamon may be the Sun, from Hamah, which in Hebrew signifieth heat; and because the year gins in March, when the Sun enters into Aries, he is painted with Rams horns. (2) If so fearful judgements fell upon those that sought to destroy the temple of a false God, how will those be plagued that demolish the temples of the true God? Nay what may they expect that pluck down the Living temples of the holy Ghost, their own bodies and souls by riot?  

Hot ashes thee consume, as them who thus  
Died, by the fraud of second Darius.   
Ochus, who was also called Darius secundus, feasted all those that had assisted him in his faction, in a room wherein was a trap-door, under which were hot ashes; the guests being drunk, the trap was opened, and they all fell into the ashes and were smothered.  
(1) The treason is loved, not the Traitor. When complices have acted their part, and the design is accomplished, they smell like a close stool in the nostrils of the projector. (2) Sweet meat hath sour sauce. Feast-makers do oftentimes invite their guests to trap them in their words, sometimes to undermine their livelihood, perhaps their lives.  

315. As upon Olive-bearing Sytions King,  
Let cold and hunger death upon thee bring.   
Neocles King of Sytion, a city in Laconia, abounding with Olive trees, for cruelty, exaction and oppression was deposed, and not long after died with cold and hunger.  
(1) Golden was that Symbol of the prudent Emperor. A good shepherd will rather fleece then flay his sheep: By the first he will have wool every year, by the other but once. Silly was the plot of that covetous woman, that in hope of a great treasure, killed her hen that laid her every day a golden egg. (2) Milk-purse Lawyers (so Erasmus terms them) are far more tolerable than Cutpurse tyrants. (3) Pharisaical oppressors seldom miss their just reward alive: after death their souls are feigned to enter into Asses, so to be crushed with such burdens as they laid on others.  

As Acarnides that in Bulls-hide lay;  
Be thou so brought unto thy Lord a prey.   
Hermias' son of Acarnus, taken captive by Memnon, was sewed in the hide of a new-slain Bullock, and fed under his table till vermin killed him.  
(1) A noble conquest may be too much blemished by ignoble deportment toward the conquered. (2) The Allseeing Eye, not blind Fortune, giveth the victory, the Lord of Hosts the All-able hand is stronger than Reason or Means. Hodiè mihi, cras tibi, To day mine, to morrow thine. Do therefore to others as thou wouldst be done to. Renowned Caesar wept on the dead body of Pompey. It is inhuman, sarcasmically to insult over a captive, as a Cat over a Mouse. Advancement shows the man; the higher the Ape climbs, the more she shows her naked parts.  

Or as Pheraeus, be thou stabbed in bed,  
320. Whom with a sword his new wife murdered.   
Alexander Pheraeus loved his wife Thebes very well, yet before he would go in unto her, he commanded some of his guard to search if any weapon were in the chamber, fearing she would slay him. Afterwards suspecting him of Adultery she killed him.  
(1) Jealousy is the daughter of extreme love, and mother of extreme hate. (2) A wife is an earthly heaven or hell. (3) Fear of death is worse than death itself. (4) More danger is in an homebred conspirator, than a foreign enemy. Injury from a bosom-friend strikes deeper than from any other. That stab from Brutus cut Caesar to the heart. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; what thou my son?  

Let those thou thinkest faithful, by a wound,  
As to Alebas, false to thee be found.   
Alebas King of Larissa, ruled with much cruelty, and for his safety chose a guard of valiant men, who at length slew the King.  
(1) The strongest and safest guard for a Prince (next to a good conscience) is the free and faithful love of loyal subjects. (2) Divine justice so abominates a cruel King, that he maketh the best defence wherein he trusted to become most offensive to him, and the spills of the staff on which he leaned to run into his hands. (3) Man was made to be as a God to man, but he becomes a Wolf, a Devil; so was Judas to his Lord and Master. Pernicies homini quae pessima? solus homo alter.  

As Milo that did Pisa long torment,  
Alive into the sea be headlong sent.   
Milo King of Pisa, shown himself most unmerciful in exactions; wherefore the people rebelling, tied a stone about his neck and drowned him.  
(1) It is a more Princely thing to enrich then to be rich. (2) Free subjects are like smooth streams running in their ancient channel, if any dam or obstacle stop them from enjoying their wont liberties and immunities, they swell the higher, at last they break down, carry away and drown all the opposing matter.  

325. As Adimantus the Philesian King,  
So Jove his thunderbolts upon thee fling.   
Adimantus King of Philesia, scorning to offer sacrifice to Jupiter, but bragging that he was mightier than he, was struck with a thunderbolt.  
(1) For a man to make comparison with another man is odious, with God impious and damnable. Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are Gods. Give him the honour due unto his name. Omne sub regno graviore regnum. The highest earthly King is under a higher, and to him he oweth service and homage. His service is perfect freedom, he that denieth this, will be a reprobate slave to sin and Satan. Better submit to his golden Sceptre, then be bruised by his iron rod. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.  

As Dionysius from Amastrix gone,  
Thou in Achilles' course be left alone.   
Dionysius (or Lerneus) King of Heraclia, being banished by Mithridates from Amastrix, a city built by his wife Amastrix, fled to a place called Achilles' course, whither Achilles had pursued Iphigenia, and there forsaken by his friends, was slain.  
(1) Prince's exiled may expect more danger and less comfort than a private person. Pliny reports that the river Novanus in Lombary runs over the banks at Midsummer, and is dry in Winter. Prosperity finds too many friends, Adversity few or none. Whosoever revolts was never a friend.  

Thrice with Eurydamas 'bout Thrafill's urn,  
330. Let Larissean wheels thy carcase turn.   
Eurydamas that slew Thrasillus King of Larissa, in a tumult, was afterwards killed by Simo the King's brother, and three times dragged about Thrasillus grave.  
(1) In a rabble of the giddy multitude, a sovereign Prince is sooner destroyed then a sturdy peasant. (2) One viol set in tune, and hanged in a room with others, being touched, the rest do smpathize with a grumbling sound. Thus the sensitive tree, if ye touch one leaf the whole tree will quake. Injury offered to a brother will move compassion, and revenge. We may-seek retaliation of blood for blood; that in a right way is warrantable. But insultation upon a dead foe is most ignoble. Instant morientibus ursi. The magnanimous Lion scorns to touch a liveless creature.  

Like him whose corpse we dragged about Troy's wall,  
Which he long kept, which after him did fall.   
Hector son of Priamus and Hecuba, the most valiant Captain of all the Trojans, slew Patroclus, and the best of the Grecian Captains; at last he was slain by Achilles, and dragged about the walls of Troy, shortly after his death Troy was taken.  
(1) Cut off the head, how can the body move? Smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. A thousand of soldiers amount not to the value of one wise valiant Chief, a trusty Trojan. The loss of an heroic Hector is the fall of a kingdom. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchmen watch in vain. When the Lord of hosts leaveth Jericho, rams horns may blow it down.  

Strange death Hippomedes daughter suffered,  
Horses through Athens hale th'adulterer dead.  
335. When tired life thy limbs forsake, a nag  
Along the ground thy loathsome carcase drag.   
Hippomenes King of Athens, having found his daughter Limone guilty of adultery, shut her up with an hungry horse, which at last devoured her; and the adulterer was dragged at the horse tail along the streets: for which horrid fact the King was banished.  
(1) Adultery is a beastly sin, and capital among Jews and Heathen, but among some Christians it is more often threatened then punished; because perhaps the executioner of justice cannot without fear of a recoil, cast the first stone. (2) Children have covered the nakedness of their father (witness Noah, Gen. 19) why may not a father do so to his child? though in conscience he cannot cover the sin, he may for his credit cover the shame; and upon hopeful signs of conversion, endeavour a pardon from God and Man. (3) The love of parents is extreme, too indulgent, or too impatient. A passionate father is no competent judge upon an offending child. Parents provoke not your children to wrath, Eph. 6.4. much less, in your proeoved wrath destroy a child, lest your father which is in heaven destroy you for it.  

Be split upon a rock as many a Greek,  
Upon Caphareus in the Euboean Creek.   
Nauplias in revenge of his son Palamedes, who by the false accusation of Ulysses was put to death, made great lights on the promontory Caphareus in Euboea, whither the Grecians returning from Troy struck sail, taking it for a haven, and there perished.  
(1) A spring naturally descends, not ascends, so is love between the ancestors and posterity. No child or grandchild can so dearly love their progenitors as they do them. It appears by Nauplias. (2) The new ignis fatuus of false lights have shipwracked the tender consciences of too many silly women and men laden with sin, upon the offensive rocks of Schism and Heresy, more than Caphareus.  

As Ajax died by thunderbolt and Sea,  
340. Let fire assist the water to drown thee.   
Ajax Oileus after the siege of Troy, returning home, lustfully and profanely forced Cassandra in the Temple of Pallas, and was therefore justly shot to death by a thunderbolt, and drowned in the Sea.  
(1) When a soldier is unbraced of the arms of Mars, he is quickly embraced in the arms of Venus: Of idleness comes no goodness. A Bird sitting, not flying, is shot by the fowler. Water standing, not running, gathers filth. By doing nought we learn to do naught. (2) God's presence is every where, but more perpendicularly in his Temple. Holiness becometh his house for ever. (3) Spiritual fornication consenting to Satan, in a wandering or a wicked thought is sinful any where, but in that holy place it is all one as if the woman should act the filthy sin before her husband's face. But corporal fornication under that sacred roof, is not only heathenish but devilish. For it doth at once defile both the Material and spiritual temple of that jealous God. And double sin, double punishment.  

Let Furies wrack thy mind, be thou as mad  
As he that one wound in his body had.   
Marcyas' son of Hyagnis the Musician, was so proud of his skill, that he presumed to challenge Apollo, and scorning to yield, had his skin plucked over his ears.  
(1) The Frog in the fable, stretching to be as great as the Ox, burst to pieces. Thrasonian prodigals, that wear whole Lordships on their backs, at once straining to be Lords, leap out of their skins, like puddings, and at last become scarce worth a pudding. If thou hast learning and art proud, I suspect thy learning; what hast thou that thou hast not received? and if thou hast received it, why boastest thou?  

As Dryas son that Rhodopes kingdom held,  
Who cut his legs when harmless vines he felled.   
Lycurgus' King of Thracia, son of Dryas, perceiving that some of his subjects were too much given to wine, commanded all vines in Thracia to be cut down. Hence the Poet feign that Lycurgus, because he envied Bacchus' Wine for his sacrifice, fell mad, and cut his own shins.  
(1) Harm watch, harm catch. Vinum immodicè haustum est venenum, modicè divinum, (especially to a Poet.) (2) God saw all things which he made to be very good, Gen. 1. and gave wine to make glad the heart of man, Psal. 104. why then should an abuse by one or few, extirpate the use of a creature? shall wine be a sin because Noah was drunk? One of the first and best Saints was advised by his Ghostly Father to drink a little wine, 1 Tim. 5. Why then should the dry Goatly Fathers of his Holiness rob their Lay-childrens of their due share in that cup of blessing in the Sacrament? They may as well make them vow with the Reckabites not to drink wine for ever.  

345. Oetous and Dragon's son in law be thy fate,  
Tissamens' Father and Callirhöes mate.   
1. Hercules' suspected by his wife Dejanira that he loved jole more than her, sacrificing on the hill Oete, in a garment dipped in the blood of the Centaur Nessus, sent as a token by his wife, fell mad and burned himself.  
(1) women's Jealousy is like their Lust, and both like the fire of hell, unquenchable. Some think that Dejanira sent her husband that token, not in revenging hate, but to gain his love. So often an ill event follows a good intent. Thus a cockering mother kills her best beloved child with kindness. Thus the Ape by hugging strangles her dearest darling.  
2. Athamas husband of Ino, daughter of Cadmus, that was turned to a Serpent, having in his madness killed his son Learchus, at last killed himself.  
(1) Unreasonable creatures do not only procreate, but preserve their issue, why then should man be so mad with reason, to murder his own child? (2) Let us strive to give deadly wounds to our sins, those bastards begot by the Devil upon our flesh. Happy is he that can dash these Babylonish brats against the stones.  
3. 
Senec. Trag.  Orestes father of Tissamenus, son of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra, having killed his mother that committed adultery with Aegysthus, fell mad.  
(1) If a parent sins, how dare a child or any private person take up the public sword to punish? This Matricide Orestes ran mad after the fact: Parricides voluntarily are mad before. The end of such is by their own or by another's hand.  
4. Alcmeon husband of Calirhoe, going to his other wife Alphesthaea, whom he had deceived, for a jewel, was slain by her brothers.  
(1) Polygamy is double Misery. One may as easy serve two maste●s as please two wives. One at once is enough, if not too much. (2) achan's golden wedge procured his untimely death. Covetousness endangereth body and soul.  

Thy wife to thee no chaster prove than she,  
Of whom old Tydaeus might ashamed be.   
Diomedes son of Tydaeus, married Aegiale, whom Venus caused to make her body common, because her husband happened to hurt Venus when she defended Aeneas.  
(1) An adulterous wise is Actaeon's park dispaled; a whole pound of Hartshorn infused in Nectar will scarcely cure her husband of the head-ache. The urine cast by scolding Xanthippe upon the head of her husband Socrates was less dangerous than an harder thing. A lose wife makes her husband hornmad and heart-sad. Faelix quem faciunt aliorum cornua cautum.  

Or Locris lass that with her husband's brother  
350. Lay; and killed her maid the fact to smother.   
Hypermnestra of Locris lay with her husband's brother, and killed her maid, to make the world think that she, not the mistress was guilty of the offence.  
(1) Sin scorns to go alone, Adultery hath Murder waiting at her heels: she that dares destroy her own soul by Adultery, will not stick to destroy another's body by Murder. (2) Committing a second sin to cover the first, is to take a remedy worse than the disease. Boy's will excuse the fault of Trevantnes by the sin of lying▪ Adam to quit himself, will lay the fault on God. The woman Thou gavest me, etc.  

Gods grant thy life be faithless, and so bad,  
As Taläus and Tyndar's son in law had.   
1. Amphiaräus husband to Eriphele, daughter of Talâus, one of the seven Kings that besieged Thebes at first, for fear of the war hid himself, his wife for jewels discovered him; he went to the siege and there was slain.  
(1) An army of valiant Lions led by a cowardly Hart, is not so prevalent as an army of Hearts led by a Lion. Like Captain, like company. (2) God made husband and wife one flesh. No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but woman doth hers. The Philistines could not plough without Sampsons' Heifer. He was never taken but by means of a wife. Neither can the Devil tempt us to evil without the Dalilah of our own flesh. We have good cause then to pray in the sense of the Spanish proverb, O Lord deliver me from myself.  
2. Agamemnon's husband of Clytaemnestra, daughter of Tyndarus, returning from Troy, was killed by his own wife and her Adulterer Aegysthus.  
(1) My own house should be my castle of defence, not offence. Women, chief a wife, should be not woe to man, but a helper. (2) A sheep shunning a storm, shelters under a bush, where he loseth his fleece, perhaps his life. So the foolish fish leapt out of the frying-pan into the fire. A window wholly opened brings in less dangerous cold then a small chink. Open enemies abroad overcame not this royal Agamemnon, but that bitter-sweeting his wife at home.  

Or Belus Nieces that did dare to kill  
Their Husbands: Therefore carry water still.   
Fifty daughters of Danâus son of B●lus, married to fifty sons of their uncle Aegyptus, 
Ovid. Met.  in the first night killed all their new husbands but one, wherefore they are condemned to draw water in hell, till they fill a sieve or a pitcher full of holes.  
(1) husbandmen's toil is like these wenches, their work is never at an end. (2) Learn with the one sister Hypermnestro, rather to obey the command of your Heavenly, then Natural or Civil fathers.  

355. With lust of thee thy sister burn, and be  
True but in vice, as Biblis, Canace.   
1. Biblis daughter of Miletus and Canace, lustfully loved her brother Caunus, 
Natal. Comes.  travelling many countries', and not finding him, she dissolved into a fountain, the monument of her punishment and perpetual sorrow.  
(1) Here we may observe the impotency of passion and wicked affection, Woman is naturally of a more cold complexion, and tempered with less impudence than Man, yet that devilish Cupid findeth the weaker vessel to be the fittest instrument to kindle his fiery darts. (2) It is true that Cain and his sons out of necessity married their own sisters, which was afterwards forbidden by the law of Nature, acknowledged by all Nations. 
Justin.  But Cambyses persuaded by his sycophants that a King was liable to no law, durst infringe it. Nay among the Romans Claudius was the first that married his Niece. 
Tacitus.   
2. Canace daughter of Aeolus, brought forth a child begotten by her own brother Macareus; her father discovering the child by the crying going to nurse, killed it with his dogs.  
(1) All kinds of sin by the law of Heathens, so by the law of God, were accounted equal; yet by the laws of Man, Fornication is a great sin, Adultery greater, Incest greatest of all in that kind. A great folly was committed in Israel when Judah lay with Thamar his daughter in law, Gen. 38. A greater when Ammon defiled his sister Tamar, 2 Sam. 13. (2) God will visit the sins of the fathers upon the children of them that hate him; yet not unless the children hate him as their fathers did. Why then should unmerciful murdering man punish a guiltless infant for the guilty parent's sin? As Aeolus did the child of his daughter Canace.  

If thou hast daughter, may she prove to thee,  
As Pelope, Myrrah, and Nyctimene.   
1. Pelope daughter of Thyestes lay with her own father; the child by them begotten, as soon as it was born was cast into the woods to be devoured of beasts; a shepherd finds it and doth nurse it with Goat's milk, whence he is called Aegysthus.  
(1) Lot cannot so properly be said to lie with his own daughters as they with him, for he knew not when they lay down or when they risen up. Neither can his drunkenness mitigate, but aggravate the sin. When blood toucheth blood in this kind, it is abominable out of kind. From such bloodguiltiness and bloud-thirstiness good Lord deliver us.  
2. Myrrah daughter of Cynaras' King of Cipria, by the means of the old witch her nurse, lay with her own father, being drunk; the child begot was Adonis; the father discovering his daughter, furiously pursued her; she fled to Arabia, there fearing to die, and not desirous to live, she is turned into a tree of her own name.  
(1) Bodin observeth, that there is an hundred women Witches for one man Witch, as more easily seduced by the Devil, in regard of their Melancholy and Envy.  

Non audet Stygius Pluto tentare, quod audet  
Effraenis Monachus, plenaque fraudis anus.   

Not Stygian Pluto ever durst pursue,  
What a bold Monk or cozening Hag durst do.   
(2) Where Bacchus is Porter Venus seldom fails of entrance. Prodigal cups besot the understanding, drunkenness confounds the Memory, and so bemists the eye, that things appear not the same as they are.  
3. Nyctimene daughter of Nycteus, by the help of her Nurse, enjoyed her father's bed; after she living in woods, was turned by Pallas into an Owl.  
(1) Ugly was the shape of Nyct●mene being now an Owl, but more ugly her crime of filthy incest. She is wondered at like a prodigy in nature, driven from the society of others, ashamed of herself, and stalking in the dark, when virtue though unfortunate shuns not the light, being a reward and praise to itself. (2) The Crow and the Owl express two deadly enemies; the Crow breaking the eggs of the Owl by day: 
Mr Sandys Met.  and the Owl the eggs of the Crow by night. The Owl is the hieroglyphic of death, and the Crow of long life. The Owl was sacred to Minerva, and therefore Homer calls her Glaucopis, either for her grey eyes; for that coloured eye hath acutest sight: or from her faculty of watching and musing, the mind in silent night being more recollected and vigorous; or because the Athenians had many Owls, or that they stamped their Coin with that figure.  

And no more faithful to her father's hair,  
360. Then Pterela's or Nisus daughters were.   
1. Clitvetho (whom Servius calleth Polidice) knowing all her father's secrets, being much taken with the beauty of Amphitryo an enemy; in hope to obtain his love, cut off her father Pterela King of Thebes his golden hair, which as long as he kept, Neptune promised he should never be conquered. This hair she gave Amphitryo, who afterward killed her father, and rejected her.  
(1) Dionysius, that would not trust his daughters to cut his hair, but taught them to sing it off with burning shells of Walnuts, was more prudent than Pterela, or Samson that discovered to his concubine the lock wherein his strength did lie. (2) Affection breaketh the strongest tie of relation, as we find in Polidice. Omnia vincit amor. (3) Let not thine enemy know one of thy secrets, let thy friend know some, let not thy child, no not thy wife know all. Hezechias disclosing his treasure lost it. Isa. 39  
2. Scylla daughter of Nysus King of Megara, cut off her father's purple hair, and gave it Minos then besieging Megara, whose destiny lay in that hair, and so betrayed her father and city.  
(1) Vespasians head without hair did more handsomely become a Crown, than Absalon's hair without a head. (2) Torturing is that kingdom whose fate depends like Damocles sword upon an hair. Unless the supreme head of the Mystical body do govern the politic, the power of an arm of flesh is not worth an hair. (3) Happy are true believers, for the very hairs of their head be numbered. Though we are but as small hairs, no principalities nor power of earth or hell, can pluck away or separate us from Christ our head.  

Or she whose bloody act defamed the place,  
That rid in chariot o'er her father's face.   
Tullia daughter of Servius the sixth King of the Romans, wife to Tarqvinius Superbus, to congratulate her husband being new made King, commanded her Coach to be driven over her dead father's face, then killed by Tarquin.  
(1) Ambition tramples Natural and Civil Fathers under foot, making such opportunities a stirrup to mount into a throne, swimming through Aceldama to a Crown. But such puffed bladders when they are swollen to the fullest, one prick will empty them of all their windy honour.  

Perish like those young men whose dismal fate  
Was, limbs and head to hang on Pisa 's gate.   
Oenomaus King of Pisa, ordained that whosoever conquered him, 
Nat. Com.  by running with horses in a Chariot, should marry his daughter Hippodamia, and that the conquered should die. Thirteen were overcome and put to death, and for terror were hanged on the gate of Pisa. At last Pelops won the race by the help of Myrtilus the Coachman, who for a bribe, omitted to put the pin into the Axletree, so the King fell to the ground, and his daughter and the kingdom fell to Pelops.  
(1) Our life is a race, our Antagonists worldly pleasures and carnal affections, which are like furious horses. (2) Thirteen are conquered, only one doth conquer; Many are called, few chosen, and few there be that shall be saved; he that conquers shall gain the glory of victory and the crown of glory. So run therefore that ye may obtain. But the race is not to him that runneth; call for the help of God, he will weaken your adversary, and make you more than conquerors.  

365. Or he that coloured with his own that land,  
Which with the poor wooers blood he first had stained.   
That cruel Oenomaus, 
Natal. Com.  after he had hanged up the heads of so many, at last broke his own neck.  
(1) The pitcher that comes too often to the water, in the end is cracked.  

— Neque enim lex justior ulla est,  
Quàm necis artifices arte perire suâ.   

Nor any juster law find I,  
Then death-inventors by their art to die.   
So Oenomaus by his own invention was destroyed. (2) Fate can and will effect its end, without any assistance, against all resistance, yet commonly it worketh not alone, 
Dallington Aph.  but is attended with second and subaltern causes, concurring in the party himself whose ruin is destined. (3) If a Lion's skin will not do it, sew a Fox's tail unto it. When force prevails not, policy is of force. (4) Divine justice doth often pay the wicked in their own coin, and trap them in their own snare.  

Or the King's faithless Coachman in that game,  
Who to Myrtoan sea did give his name.   
Myrtilus the coachman of Oenomaus, demanding of Pelops his promised reward for betraying his Lord, was thrown into the sea, whence that part of the sea is called Myrtoum Mare.  
(1) Woe unto those that like Myrtilus and Judas, for the wages of iniquity do betray their own Lord and master. Myrtilus was drowned, Judas burst asunder and went to his own place, which is thought to be Hell. Let all that aim at such ends, beware of such an end.  

Like those who would the nimble lass in vain,  
370. Whose pace three golden apples did retain.   
Atalanta daughter of Scheneus, was so swift in running, that he only should have her, that could outrun her; 
Ovid Met.  which Hippomenes did, slackening her pace by three golden apples which he cast one by one in the way, so he won the race and the maid; but Hippomenes proving unthankful to Venus, was instigated in the temple of Cybele, to his unseasonable using of his wife, and so were both turned to Lions.  
(1) Art, like Atalanta, by her own virtue, if not interrupted, is swifter than Nature or Hippomenes. Clay long ere it generate a stone, is by fire soon changed to brick; but all Arts and Sciences are hindered by Lucre, therefore Art obeyeth the commands of Nature, as a wife her husband. (2) Here is deciphered the unconstant mind of a woman, diverted by gold from obedience to the heavenly Oracle. (3) Ingratitude to Man is an hateful vice, but to God flagitious; it is seconded with impudence, and impudence is the conductor of uncleanness and profaneness. (4) As Atalanta, so is Astrea, justice too often stopped in her course by Gold.  

Or those that entered the new Monsters room,  
In that blind house whence none could ever come.   
Pasiphae in the absence of her husband Minos, King of Crete, fell in love with a Bull, who enclosed by the art of Daedalus, in a Cow of wood, enjoyed her infamy, and brought forth a Monster; in his upper parts resembling a Man, in his nether a Beast: which of her husband and the brutish Adulterer, was called Minotaur, 
Herodotus.  whom Minos enclosed in a Labyrinth invented by Daedalus, which was a prison under the earth, contrived with intricate wind, whence none that were cast in could ever come out. To this Monster was thrown the ninth year Tribute of seven youths, and so many virgins to be devoured, in satisfaction of the murder of Minos his son Androgeus.  
(1) Though like prodigious lusts are forbidden by the laws of Moses, as by ours, which argues a possibility of the prohibited offence, yet it is by the best and most believed that this Taurus was Minos' Secretary, or a Captain of his army, who with the privacy of Daedalus in his house, dishonoured Pasiphäe. (2) By a Labyrinth the Ancient deciphered the perplexed condition of Man, cumbered and entangled with many and innumerable mischiefs, through which it is impossible to pass, without the conduct of Wisdom, and exercise of unfainting fortitude. (3) Pasiphäe is the soul married to Minos, (Justice or integrity) but carried away with sensual delights, is said to commit with a Bull; so brutish are the affections revolting from virtue, producing monsters of vice.  

Or whom Achilles in his grief and ire,  
Threw six and six into the solemn fire.   
Achilles much grieved for Patroclus, slain by Hector, cast twelve Trojans into the fire wherein Patroclus was burned.  
(1) Why should the loss of a friend make us lose our reason too? Passions are good servants, bad masters. Let anger have leave to rule but one day, it will not only with Patroclus kill subjects, but with Semiramis cut off his Sovereign; Revenge, Avarice and Ambition, are unreasonable, unsatiable. Let Christians be merciful, as their heavenly Father is merciful, and leave vengeance to him that can and will repay it.  

375 Or those whom Sphinx with riddles did put down,  
And after headlong from a rock were thrown.   
Sphinx daughter of Typhoon and Echidna, had the face of a Virgin, wings of a Bird, and the rest a Lion or Dog: upon a Promontory near Thebes she proposed to passengers a riddle, which they that could not resolve were cast down the rock: when Oedipus had resolved it, she broke her own neck. 
Diodor. Sicul.  But Diodorus doth believe that Sphinx was a mere docible Ape. Her Riddle out of the Greek I English thus. 
Nat. Com. Mythol.   

What thing can four-foot, twofoot, threefoot be,  
At Morning four, Noon two, at Evening three?  
Oedipus his resolve.  
A child doth creep on four, a man doth stand  
On two feet, old folk have a staff in hand.   
(1) By the fable of Sphinx we are taught to bear all changes and chances with an undaunted upright mind. Fortune, as Sphinx, hath wings, she is unconstant, claws fit for prey, she can take all away when she will: a face like a woman or man; for women and men are subject to vicissitudes of fortune, which we ought to suffer with hearts like Lions. (2) Satan like Sphinx hath a face like a Woman to entice; claws like a Lion to tear us; wings like a bird nimbly to assault us; and riddles sophistically to deceive us; Let us, like Oedipus, ask counsel of that true Minerva, Christ, the wisdom of God, to conquer him.  

Or who in Bistons' Church by sword did die,  
Which made the Goddess turn her face awry.   
People called Bistones, decreed and vowed to sacrifice all strangers to their Goddess Pallas; so with others, they used the people of Lemnos, although they fled to her Temple; which fact did much displease the Goddess.  
(1) Offer unto God, not other men's, but thine own; That vow and act of Jephte Judg. 11. in offering his daughter, was rather an incomparable paroxysm of his thankful zeal to God, than a warrantable pattern for imitation to us. Much less should these barbarous Bistons offer strangers in whom they had no interest. (2) Christ sacrificed his own life for us, being strangers from the covenant, it is Heathenish then for Christians to make a covenant to sacrifice strangers or any others life, to their own wrongful wrath.  

Or who on crutches weltering in their blood,  
380. To horses of the Thracian King were food.   
Diomedes King of Thracia, fed his horses with man's flesh, whom Hercules fed with the flesh of the Tyrant.  
(1) This is a punishment agreeable both to the law of God and man, That offenders should suffer what themselves inflicted. (2) Some think that Diomedes was one that had wasted his estate, by keeping of horses, therefore Diomedes friends called his horses Man-eaters. (3) Others conceive that these horses were his lascivious daughters, who consumed the substance and strength of their lovers; horses being the Hieroglyphic of lust and foul desires, compared by holy writ to their neighings; for no creature is so prone to Venus as a Mare; and is therefore feigned to conceive with the wind. (4) Some do conclude these horses to be his followers, maintained by exactions, feeding on the bowels, as it were, of his miserable subjects. But the horses and Master are slain by Hercules: Covetousness, cruelty and uncleanness corrected and subdued by the zeal of virtue.  

Or who the Lions of Therodomas fed,  
Or were to Thoas Goddess offered.   
1. Therodomas, a King of Scythia, fearing that his people would rebel, fed Lions with man's flesh, that so they might become the more fierce to defend his person, and offend the people, if cause were given.  
(1) Wicked rulers do more fear others, than others do fear them. A guard of simple men is more then enough for a conscientious King, a guard of savage Lions too little for a conscious Tyrant. Lions by nature are noble creatures, and sometimes more merciful than their ignoble masters, so those civil beasts of that cruel King to the patiented Prophet, Dan. 5. (2) Except the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the King of kings, be his tutelary God, no King can be saved by a multitude of horses, nor safely guarded by an host of men, and roaring Lions of hell.  
2. Thoas King of Taurica vowed to sacrifice to his Goddess Diana, all shipwrecked men and strangers that came into his territories.  
(1) Dido was not so extremely courteous to shipwrecked Aeneas, by recruiting his wasted livelihood, as Thoas extremely cruel, by taking away shipwrecked men & strangers lives, when their livelihood was gone: And which is most abominable, pretending, forsooth, a sacrifice to his Goddess. Thus persecutors, as Christ did prophesy, by killing his Ministers, shall think they do God service, joh. 16.2. Simulata sanctitas duplex iniquitas.  

Or those with whom Dulichian ships were fraught,  
Whom swallowing Scylla and Caribd's caught.   
Scylla daughter of Phorchus, was beloved of Glaucus; Circe the famous inchantress, diverts his affection to herself, and infects the bay frequented by the Nymph, wherein she bathing, contracts that monstrous deformity, her loins environed with howling wolves and barking dogs, destroying all that come near her; as six of Ulysses ships.  
(1) Scylla, so a virgin, while chaste, attracts by her beauty the affection of all, once polluted by the sorceries of Circe rendering her maiden-honour to be deflowered by bewitching pleasures, she is transformed into an horrid monster, endeavouring to shipwreck others on the same rocks of vice and misery, (such is the envy of infamous women.) Scylla was soon after turned into a rock: So is the impudence of lascivious women hardened by custom. Near the Promontory of Pelorus, a sharp cleft shuts out like a woman, this they call Scylla, full of holes, the enraged sea here making a noise, are the imagined dogs; on this many ships too fearfully avoiding the gulf Charybdis, have been split. Sailing between these two is safe, in the mean between two extremes, Prosperity and Adversity. Med●o tutissimus ibis. Give me neither poverty nor riches, Lord keep me below envy and above pity.  

385. Or int'his his pa●ch whom Polyphemus sent,  
Or to the King of Lestrigonia went.   
Of Polyphemus see before.  
While Ulysses slept, his companions peeping into the bladder or bag wherein Aeolus had given Ulysses the winds, lost both the winds and the greater part of the company, for they were carried to Lestrigonia, where Antiphates a Giant being their King, ate one of the messengers that were sent for victualling; Ulysses escaping thence lost eleven ships, and scarcely saved his own. After twenty years' travel, and innumerable crosses he arrived home.  
(1) The Sun shineth brighter through a vapour dispersed, 
Dalling. Aph.  and shows the best lustre upon an encounter. So virtue. Behold in Ulysses a wise and good man drawn to life. He was wise, in not making haste to war; he was wise in joining Achilles' strength with h●s policy; he was wise in refusing the enchanting cups of Circe, etc. but no man ever was under pressures more than he, yet still supported and relieved by virtue. (2) Providence doth vouchsafe us helps, as the winds to Ulysses, to guide us to our haven; if we sleep as he, and neglect the means, we shall find our voyage very dangerous. But through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of heaven.  

Or whom in ditch the Carthage Lord did drown,  
And made the waters white by stones in thrown.   
Amilcar drowned the Counsellors of the Acerranii in a ditch, and threw in stones upon them. Some rather think here is meant Hannibal, Hamilcar's son, that made a bridge of dead bodies over the river Gella.  
(1) Rather than try what an enemy can do, when thou seest what he would do, make him a bridge of silver to go his way. Rather than stay till they come on ours, let us pass though over a bridge of dead bodies, and sight him on his own ground. Turpius ejicitur quàm non admittitur hostis. An enemy is easier kept out then thrust out.  

As maids and wooers of Ulysses wife,  
390. And who to kill his master lent a knife.   
Ulysses when he came to his house he was not known to any: By the help of his son Telemachus, he slew the lascivious wooers of his Queen, hanged her unchaste maidservants, and mangled to death Melant●ius his manservant, that lent a knife to kill his Lord.  
(1) Visit not a friend too often, lest thou seem troublesome; not too seldom, lest thou be forgotten. (2) As Ulysses killed the impetuous Wooers, let us subdue our affections, that would seduce our souls to vice, that should be as chaste Penelope. (3) Melanthius, that lent his knife had been as guilty as he that used it. In murder there is no accessary, the abettor and actor be all one. The Jews were as guilty as Pilate and the executioner. Just judgement overtook the Judge, and the blood of their King still lies upon the Jews.  

Or th' Wrestler that th' Aônian guest did kill,  
That when he fell ('tis strange) was victor still.   
Antaeus' a Giant of Lybia 64 Cubits high, begotten of Neptune and the Earth: in wrestling, 
Nat. Com.  when he was thrown down by Hercules upon the ground, his strength increased, which Hercules perceiving, lift him from the ground, and squeezing him to his breast stiffed him.  
(1) Hercules, that is, the heat of the Sun, overthrows Antaeus, which signifies the contrary with his too much heat: according to the Axiom. Contraries are cured by their contraries. A Fever is not cured by hot things, nor a hydropsy by cold and moist. (2) Hercules ●s the symbol of the soul, Antaeus the body, between Reason the essence of the one, and Pleasure the essence of the other, is a perpetual conflict. Reason cannot prevail, unless it so raise the body, that it receive no force from the earth, and that the desires and affections, which are the sons of the earth, be strangled. The covetous, the more their affections cling to earthly things, the more strongly covetous they are. (3) Prosperity by lifting up, chokes; adversity by casting down, doth strengthen.  

Or whom Antaeus arms pressed out of breath,  
Or Lemnian wives did put to cruel death.   
1. Antaeus' compelled foreigners to wrestle with him, and so strangled them with his matchless strength.  
(1) Thus the mighty oppress the weak, as the greater fish devour the less: The brass pot with one touch will crack the earthen; let the brittler then keep off, with a Noli me tangere. If the Frog swells at the Ox he will burst, so a Peasant meddling with a Potentate.  
2. The women of Lemnos for despising the sacrifice of Venus, were by the Goddess made so loathsome, that their husbands left them, and lived with new wives abroad; at last coming home, the old slew the new wives and their husbands, with all the male-childrens, save one.  
(1) If no relation, no Religion, no other motive can persuade, methinks women should serve and love God, that the God of love may not permit their husbands instead of love to loath them.  

395. Or he that by inhuman sacrifice  
Got rain, but suffered by his own device.   
Thraseas or Thraseus a soothsayer, in a great drought, told Busiris the Tyrant of Egypt, that rain would fall if he sacrificed strangers to Jupiter. Busiris finding him to be a stranger, replied, Then thou shalt first bring Egypt rain, and so offered him first.  
(1) Drought in Egypt is rare, 
Herodotus.  for the river Nilus doth overflow it. (2) ' H 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Evil counsel proves worst to the counsellor, as to Thraseus and Achitophel. (3). Let us, wanting rain, fall to the earth as Elias, and ascend to heaven with prayer; let us with David water our couch with tears for our sins, which make the heavens like brass.  

Or like Antaeus' brother that did slain  
Altars with blood, whereon himself was slain.   
Some take the brother of Antaeus to be Pygmalion, but I think more properly, it was Busiris (for he and Autaeus were sons of Neptune.) As he sacrificed men to Jupiter, so did Hercules him.  
(1) Were that primordial Law of Nature well pondered, applied and practised [Do as thou wouldst be done to] who would steal? who would murder? Now because men will not do to others as they would have others do to them, they suffer by others as others did by them. (2) Busiris is held to be the King of Egypt, 
Sandys Met.  that so heavily oppessed the Israelites, the author of that inhuman Edict of drowning their male-childrens; hence he is said to have sacrificed strangers: his daughter is supposed to be the same that fostered Moses. Reinesius proves that he was a King of a new family, who usurped that crown, intimated by that text in Exodus. There arose a new King in Egypt that knew not Joseph.  

Or who his cruel horses, did instead  
400. Of grass and hay, with humane bodies feed.   
Of Diomedes you may read before.  

Like two by one revenger singly killed,  
Diximanus son in law and Nessus stilled.   
1. Diximanus of Olenum, was forced by Eurition to promise him his daughter Mnesimache, and to make him his son in law; on the appointed day of marriage, Hercules requested by Diximanus, came and cut off his head.  
(1) Ingens telum necessitas. Fear makes a man promise what he is not only unable, but unwilling to perform. (2) By one pin drive out another, force by force, plot by plot. (3) Involuntary love is like a Mushroom that hath no root, the least puff will blow it down. (4) Hercules better deserved a Deity then all the rest of the Heroes, he conquered nothing for himself, but ranged all over the world, not to oppress it, but to free it from oppressors, and by killing of Tyrants, and monsters, preserved it in tranquillity. He got immortal glory by Juno's mortal envy; before called Alcides, strong, he gained the name Hercules, compounded of Juno and honour.  
2. Nessus' a Centaur, promised to carry Deianira the wife of Hercules, over the river Evenus, while himself did swim: the perfidious Centaur (he being landed) attempts to ravish her, but is prevented by a mortal wound from his arrow.  
(1) It is not safe trusting a stranger with my goods, much less with a good wife. The counsel is general, Fide, sed cui, vide. Try before you trust. For in this monstrous age, too many Centaurs of two several natures do survive, that pretend one courtesy to their neighbour, and thereby intent two unto themselves: as these double creatures inherit Nessus his condition, I wish they were inhabiting in his country. Mell in ore, verba lactis, fell in cord, fraus in factis. Words of milk, honey in mouth, gall in heart, no deeds of truth. (2) The arrows of vengeance will overtake the adulterer as Nessus. (3) Fear judgement and thou wilt forbear sin.  

Like Saturn's Nephew whom Coronis son,  
Saw yielding up the ghost from his own town.   
Aesculapius' son of Coronis and Apollo, from Epidaurus, a town which he had built, saw that famous thief Periphaltes', or Periphetes, who was son of Vulcan, the son of Saturn, killed by Theseus, and his club taken from him, as the Lion's skin by Hercules, whose example in most things Theseus followed. And now our Poet having passed over the most remarkable acts of Hercules, gins with those of Theseus.  
(1) Heathen Gods are feigned to have leaden feet and iron hands, in that divine vengeance, though slow, is sure and sore, and payeth offender's home in their own coin. Those that killed with the club, have perished by the club. So it was foretold by the Lord of the Prophets▪ He that takes the sword, shall perish by the sword. These knockers and cutters, my ever honoured friend, that reverend Divine, Dr Hoskins, in his Lecture upon the eighth Commandment, doth call St Nicholas Clerks. I know that some of those Clerks have been well content with so much of the Latin tongue, as Legit ut Clericus: others have aspired so high as the Greek Alphabet, and when they came to TWO, they made an end. (2) From Jericho to our heavenly Jerusalem, we often fall among thiefs; Lord give us complete armour of the Spirit to conquer them.  

405. As Sinis, Sciron, Poliphemon and  
His son, with him that was half bull half man.   

Plutarch in Theseùs.  1. Sinis, which is by Plutarch called also Pityocamtes, that is, a wreather of Pinetrees, tied men to branches of trees bended down, so the cords or withes being cut, the strangers being jerked up were killed. So Theseus used him; for both Theseus and Hercules made Tyrants undergo their own cruelties.  
(1) The Eagle in the Fable, mounted the Tortoise aloft, on purpose to break it. Many Kings have advanced ambitious subjects, not in love but envy, not to prefer and raise them, but to precipitate and ruin them: the higher they climb, the lower they fall.  
2. Theseus threw Scyron down a cleft, who in cruel pastime caused those whom he rob to wash his feet and kiss his toe, and while they were about it spurned them into the sea.  
(1) Many Kings have kissed the Pope's toe, yet he hath kicked the Crowns off their heads. (2) Too low submission unto a lofty Tyrant doth heighten his insolence, and hastens the people's down-fall. Asperius nihil est humili cùm surgit in altum.  
3. Theseus' put Polipemon and his son Damastres or Procrustes to the same death, which they had inflicted on others, who racked out or cut short to the length of their bed, such strangers as came to Harmonia.  
(1) Thus Levellers, by Apocope, would pair off the superfluities of long Estates; and by Paragoge, add to the extremities of the short, so make both even to their own ends. Thus in some parts the Tax of strongest and longest means is shortened, and the lowest and weakest lengthened. But,  

Deuce Ace non possunt, and Since Sink solvere nolunt.  
Omnibus est notum Cater Tray solvere totum.  
Deuce Ace cannot pay scot and lot, and Sice Sink will not pay:  
Be it known to all, what payments fall must light on Cater Tray.   
4. The Minotaur in the Labyrinth, who was half Bull half man, what slain by Theseus. Read of this before.  
(1) The Romans bear a Minotaur in their Ensigns, to declare that the Counsels and Stratagems of a General should be muffled in the unsearchable blackness of secrecy (like a Labyrinth) not to be traced by the enemy, yea often to be concealed from dearest friends, according to the saying of Metellus, If I thought my shirt knew my purpose, I would tear it off my back. (2) Sensual and worldly people are like the Minotaur, like Men in Soul, like Beasts in Body. If sin kills the first, the other suffers alike. (3) The greatest Bulls of Basan, the stoutest Potentates, were they as strong as Minotaures, will be overtaken by death, violent or natural: No place so intricate, or so strongly fenced a Labyrinth, can secure the highest person. Nullo fata loco possis excludere.  

As he that men from boughs to th'air up threw,  
And billows did of this and that sea view.   
Pityocamptes dwelled between the jonnian and Aegean sea, he is the same with Sinis, of whom I spoke before.  

Or like to savage Cercyons corpse whose slaughter  
410. By Theseus' hand moved Ceres unto laughter.   
certion, as some report, was a notable strong th●ef; near Eleusis, he bowed the stoutest trees, and binding men unto them, tote them in pieces. But Plutarch relates that Theseus killed him as he others, 
Plutarch in Theseus.  by murdering those whom he conquered; he first devised the sleights of wrestling, which was carried only by strength before: Ceres laughed to see him die, because he spoiled her country Eleusis.  
(1) His own iniquity shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be held with the cords of his own sin, Prov. 11.10. Adoni-besech was punished himself as he had punished others, Judg. 2. (2) As there is joy in heaven for God's mercy upon a repenting sinner: so may in some sort be on earth, for his judgement upon impenitent reprobates, as they are enemies to the commonwealth of Israel. (3) The surviving Horatius in Florus, killed his own sister, 
Florus l. 1.  because she wept on the slain body of an enemy to the Romans.  

All plagues implored by my just wrath on thee  
Befall, let none thou sufferest lighter be.  
As Achimenides in Sicily  
Was left, the Trojan Navy being nigh.   
Achimenedes son of Adamantus, one of Ulysses soldiers, was left in Polyphemus den, till Aeneas, three months after relieved him.  
(1) When a jade is tired, and overworn, give one his skin, to knock him in the head. When a silkworm hath done his work let him fly or die: when the war is off, and the General's design and aim attained, let the soldier after sink or swim: the Amalekite howsoever was too blame, that left his servant (or soldier) sick in the field, 2 Sam. 30.23. much more is he that leaves him in a dungeon.  

415. Be thou as double-named Irus poor;  
Of beggars on the bridge make thou one more.   
Irus was first named Arnaeus, afterwards Irus, from Iris; for as Iris the Rainbow is the messenger or servant to Juno, that is, the Air, so was Irus to the Wooers of Penelope; he had a singular art in begging, and hence came the Adage, Iro pauperior, Poorer than Irus: Ulysses with his fist cuffed him and killed him. Beggars commonly sit on a bridge, where most passengers do resort.  
(1) Poverty is to any ingenious spirit the extremest misery. (2) A servingman young, a beggar old, chief if his master be luxurious or lascivious; for when he hath consumed his revenue, himself and his retinue must beg or steal. When the prodigal feeds upon husks, what reversion falls to his needy greedy servants share? (3) Roman masters in their manumission by a cuff on the ear, put their slaves free into the world; but Ulysses freely cuffed Irus out of the world.  

Pray still to Ceres' son, but still in vain.  
Call still upon him, yet no riches gain.   
Plutus son of Ceres, is feigned to be the God of riches, and to lie in the subtreranean parts of Spain, which coast abounds with Minerals; but many Authors conclude, that Plutus is the same with Pluto, the God of hell, son in law to Ceres.  
(1) In the division of the world between the three sons of Saturn, the heavens were allotted to Jupiter, the seas to Neptune, and hell to Pluto; that is, Jupiter reigned in the Orient, called the superior part, whence light ascends, 
Sandys.  as the occident the inferior, assigned to Pluto. This tradition is derived from the partition of the earth between the three sons of Noah, Sem, Ham and Japhet; And because the Western Climates, where Pluto reigned, abounded with gold and silver, wrapped in the secret bowels of the earth, he was called the infernal Deity, or the God of riches, as his name importeth: Nor unaptly were riches feigned to proceed from hell, which have carried such a number thither: This God is painted lame, and winged, for wealth comes halting to the honest, but gallops on Pluto's black horses unto others.  

Because the water's ebb and flow, the sand  
Is slippy; on't no foot can steadfast stand:  
So let thy mean estate still melt away,  
And slip between thy finger's day by day,  
As he whose girl a thousands shapes did try,  
So be thou full, and yet with famine die.   
Erisichthon, a Thessalian, despising the Gods, cut down a grove dedicated to Ceres, and was therefore punished with unsatiable hunger, so eating his own flesh, notwithstanding Metra his daughter, that could change herself into divers shapes, was contented often to be sold, to gain whereby to feed her father.  
(1) Groves were consecrated to some Deity or other, because such shady and delightful places affected the mind, and reduced it to sequestered contemplations, composing the thoughts, and inspiring a secret propensity to devotion, begetting an apprehension of some latent or hidden power. But what being well applied might nourish devotion, was converted by abuse unto Idolatry. The Jews were often guilty of this superstition. (2) Erisichthon perhaps was a prodigal glutton, who by waste expenses, was reduced to such extreme beggary, that he was glad to prostitute his own daughter for his sustenance, who had Oxen, Sheep and other provisions given her by her lovers: Therefore Metra was scoffingly said to be changed into many shapes; for the Ancients cattle was their Money (Pecunia from Pecus) Judah sent such a reward to Thamar; Misery is the companion of impiety. (3) Perhaps Erisichthon had a wolf in his breast, or had a doglike appetite, ever hungry, never thriving; of which disease, Eusebius reports the Murderers of the Innocents' died.  

425. Let man's flesh prove delicious unto thee,  
So of our time a Tydeus thou shalt be.   
Tydeus son of Oeneus King of Calidonia, when he was mortally wounded by Menalippus, desired and had brought unto him, the head of his enemy, which he gnawed like a dog, and so died.  
(1) The biting of a dying serpent is deep. (2) That man's hate is almost immortal, that is not satisfied with the head of his mortal foe. Heroic Caesar wept over Pompey dead, whom he could not endure alive. A Coward, like Dametas, will fearfully abuse that person dead, whose face without trembling fear he durst not look upon alive.  

Act that which may the Horses of the Sun  
Affright, and make to th' East from West to run.   
Thyestes adulterously used the wife of his brother Atreus: he in revenge, killed the children of Thyestes, and made of them a feast for their father: at sight of which horrid fact, the Sun is storied to run back.  
(1) Jealousy and abuse of the marriage bed, burneth like fire, and is seldom quenched without some blood. Pelopis domus ruat vel in me, dummodo in fratrem ruat, 
Senec. Thyestes.  saith Atreus. Let Pelops house fall on me too, so it falls upon Thyestes. Revenge is delicious, malicious, ingenious, and ambitious. Thyestes was wicked in wronging Atreus' wife; Atreus was more wicked, in slaying Thyestes innocent children. We blame the heathen for killing other men's children, and we more cruelly kill our own, either in giving them that we should not, by Indulgence, or not giving them that we should, by Education. Yea, some devour them alive, if not in persons, yet in their portions, by luxury and lust. 
Virgil. 2 Aen.  (2) Atreus (as Servius noteth) was the first that found out the Eclipse of the Sun, therefore the Sun is said to hid his face. (3) When the Son of God suffered, the Sun of the Sky did hid his face. The Sun of righteousness is of purer eyes then to behold iniquity.  

Do thou revive Lycaon's bloody feast,  
430. And seek by guile to cousin Jove thy guest.   
Lycaon the Arcadian King with roast and sod limbs of a Molossian, entertained Jupiter walking on the earth in the shape of a man, on purpose to kill him; the God burned his house, and turned him into a Wolf.  
(1) Pontanus thinks this to be derived from th● eighth chapter of Genesis. Thus many Poetical fables (saith Tertullian) had their original from the Scriptures. (2) Lycaon an inhuman Prince feasted the Cretan Jupiter (then with him on an embassy) with the flesh of a stranger, which discovered he overthrew the table, and raised the citizens, who by Jove's conduct drove him out into the woods, where living like an outlaw, he committed many robberies; hence arose this fable. Men infected with the Melancholy disease or rather madness, called Lycanthropia, think themselves Wolves and lurk in woods. This fable deterreth us from impiety, treachery and inhospitality; and exciteth us to the contrary virtues, seeing the Gods, though disguised, are always present, punishing and rewarding according to our actions. In all affections our Poet proportioneth the transformation, according to the quality of the transformed; as this of Lycaon.  

Let one tempt God and make a meal of thee,  
Thou Tantalus and Tereus' boy shalt be.   
Tantalus cut his son in pieces, and set it before the Gods in a feast, either to see if they could discern it, or for the greater magnificence, in sacrificing unto them that which was most in estimation: None was eaten but the shoulder, by Ceres. The Gods pitying Pelops, supplied the want with Ivory, and revoked his soul to the body.  
(1) This sacrificing of children is thought to be derived from the immolation of Isaac; A wretched custom, not only among the Heathens but Jews, who offered their sons and daughters unto Moloch. Tantalus offering his son to the Gods, allegorically declareth that nothing should be so near and dear to us which we would not sacrifice to God and Religion, who restores what we give with greater perfection. For Tantalus being rich, despised all wealth and pleasure, to attend the God's service, and thence is said to starve in plenty. For the History: It is conjectured, that Pelops was inhumanely handled by his father, therefore feigned to be cut in pieces and served to the Gods, who recompensed his sufferings with future plenty, reputation and power; for Ivory signifieth riches, and shoulder strength. (2) Though Ceres, that is, the Earth shall consume our flesh, it shall be restored stronger, our bodies sown in weakness shall be raised in power.  
2. Tereus' son of Mars, ravished Philomela, sister of his own wife Progne, and fearing discovery, cut out her tongue. Progne being certified of it by lines written in the blood of Philomela, killed her son Itis, gotten by Tereus, and boiled him, for her husband's supper; which being discovered, he drew a sword to kill her, but she was turned into a Swallow, and escaped; he into a Lapwing, and Philomela into a Nightingale.  
(1) Lustful Kings resemble Lapwings, they have Crowns, as these have tuffs on their heads, they take delight in sensual pleasure, as these birds in filthy dung. (2) By Progne and Philomela may be meant Oratory and Poetry. Oratory delights in Towns as the Swallow in houses; Poetry as the Nightingale in woods. 
Ovid. Trist.  Carmina secessum scribentis & otia quaerunt. And as far as the Nightingale exceeds the Swallow, so doth the Poet excel the Orator: for the Poet adds delight unto persuasion. (3) Learning by sons of Mars, as Tereus, is made tengue tied. Scholars like the Nightingale, have a prick at their heart; if they sing, the burden must be Lachrymae or Lamentation.  

So let thy limbs be scattered in the way,  
As his that did his father's pursuit stay.   
Medea flying after Jason, taketh her young brother Absyrtus with her, to retard the violence of her pursuing father, she kills the child, and straweth his mangled limbs in the father's way.  
(1) The Devil is not so black as he is painted, nor Medea so bad as she is feigned. Medea signifies Counsel, daughter of Iduia, that is, Knowledge; she followeth Jason, that is, a Physician; this declares, that he is no Physician, but a Fool, that wanteth counsel and understanding: She was begotten of the Sun, for all Counsel and Understanding comes from Heaven. (2) Let us kill out inordinate affections, our bosome-sins, though so near and dear as a brother, to follow Christ the Physician of our souls. If thine eye offend thee pluck it out.  

435. Let that of old Perillus be thy fate,  
Bull's voice in brazen bull to imitate,   
Perillus in hope of a reward, taught Phalaris King of Agrigentum to fry men to death in an Engine of Brass made like a Bull, which Perillus first seasoned with his own death.  
(1) The Water is commonly even, till he undermining wind doth force it into surging billows: A small sparkle of severity in a Prince hath not seldom been kindled into unexpected flames of Tyranny, by the ominous breath of ambitious and covetous spirits; but the sparks have often retorted into the faces of those incendiary Boanerges. Self-end Timists have brought upon themselves untimely ends. When Achitophel saw that his counsel turned to foolishness, he foolishly saved the Hangman a labour.  

As cruel Phalaris let thy tongue be cut,  
Then Bull-like roar in brass of Paphos shut.   
Phalaris long practised the torture that Perillus taught, and at last suffered the same death in his own Bull.  
(1) A free horse being pricked runs on till he break his own neck. Ill counsel, like the Basilisk, kills the object with its pestiferous influence. (2) Qui nescit dissimulare, nescit regnare. Princes that have acted what they would, have suffered what they would not. The wicked fall themselves into the same pit which they digged for others. Hamon shall be hanged on the same gallows he made for Mordecai.  

Or like Admetus' father-law that would,  
440. Return to youthful years when he was old.   
Pelias (whose daughter Alceste was married to Admetus) in hope by the medicines of Medea, to renew his old age, was cut in pieces, and sod in a Cauldron, mean time Medea upon her winged serpents fled in the air away.  
(1) Medea was the first that invented Physical baths, whereby she cured many diseases, especially Consumptions, and restored men to their former alacrity; and because her Composition was called a decoction, she was feigned to effect her cures by boiling of her Patients. But Peleas being old and weak, is said to have died in the bath, through extreme imbecility. That is the ground of that fable. (2) Thus many are seduced by vain hopes to attempt things impossible, with fruitless labour and irreparable loss So those that by the cunning of impostors, are seduced to study that foolish art of Alchemy, hoping to turn all metals into gold & silver, turn themselves out of all. (3) We all desire old age, but when we have it, we are weary of it. Ubi ad metam perveneris, ne velis reverti. When thou art come to thy journey's end, 'tis madness to return on purpose to begin again. I have been young and now am old, and would not be young again; for I have suffered already enough of misery, and acted too much sin.  

Leap into th' earth alive, like that stout Roman,  
But let thy act be Chronicled by no man.   
Marcus Curtius when he heard that a great cleft in the midst of Rome, presaging the ruin of all, could not be shut, unless some noble man leapt into it, he armed on horseback rid into it, so presently the gap was closed, and the city saved from sinking: hence that place was called Curtius' lake.  
(1) Why should Christians tremble at death, by which they hope to gain a better life, when a Pagan meets and embraceth death, whereby he thought his life and all future hopes were lost? (2) A good man is a common good: The heathen accounted it the greatest honour to sink, that so their Country might swim in honour. What then is that Christian who cares not if his country sink so that himself may swim in wealth and pleasure? (3) Christ willingly submitted his ●ody to death and the grave, that Christians souls might not be swallowed up in hell.  

Perish like those that in the Grecian land,  
Sprung up of teeth sown by Sydonian hand.   
Cadmus' that ruled in Sydon, sent by his father Agenor, to seek his lost daughter Europa, killed a Serpent, whose teeth being sowed in the earth produced armed soldiers, which presently killed each other. Cadmus himself was turned into a Serpent, and at last sent by Jupiter to the Elysian fields.  
(1) Agenor by interpretation is a valiant man, Cadmus his son doth confirm it. Europa is immortal glory, carried away by Jupiter, whom to find is a labour of excessive difficulty, therefore Cadmus consulteth with Apollo: for divine advice is the best Philosophy, and only guide to noble endeavours: By thi● we shall be enabled to kill the serpent of hell, and those snakes in our own bosoms, Intemperance and all evil desires. (2) This history or fable, gives me hint of civil war; but I dare not touch that string (Infandum renovare dolorem) lest I drop more tears than ink: But to our comfort Christ was the true Cadmus, who was sent by his father to seek that which was lost, he was the destroyer of the great Dragon, the Devil and all his armed teeth, his associates the Heretics and Schismatics.  

445. As Pentheus' Nephew and Medusa 's brother,  
For cross misfortunes, be thou such another.   
Menaecius a Theban, son of Creon, who was grandchild to Pentheus, when he heard that the Oracle answered, If the last of the posterity of Cadmus were sacrificed to Mars, the city Thebes then besieged by the Argives should be saved, thinking the matter concerned him, with his own sword killed himself. As for Medusa's brother, I return ignoramus, for Medusa one of the Gorgon's had no brother; perhaps Ovid means Archilochus: of whose death read before.  
(1) Pro patria sit dulce mori licet atque decorum; Vivere pro patria dulcius esse puto.  

Though for my country sweet it is to die:  
To live for it 'tis sweeter far say I.   
I cannot much condemn him, that living by the dim candle of Nature did sacrifice himself to Mars, by sword, to the honour of his God, himself, and his country; as him that under the clear sunshine of the Gospel, doth sacrifice himself unto Bacchus by riot, to the dishonour of God, himself, and his country. Plures n●cat gula quam gladius.  

Such as the bird was doomed to that did chatter  
Small secrets, and doth wash her plumes in water.   
Coronis informs of the infidelity of Aglauros, Pandrosus, and concerning Erichthonius given them to keep in secret: she is therefore banished the service of Minerva, and of a white Nymph turned to a black Crow.  
(1) The Crow is the symbol of Garrulity, and therefore rejected by Minerva; because much talking interrupts the meditation of the mind, and is offensive to wisdom. And no Crow comes near Athens, (called so from Athena, the Greek name of Minerva) of which city Minerva was Patroness; That perhaps may be the ground of this fable. (2) Silence is secure, when speaking truth is often obnoxious unto danger. We have given us by nature two Eyes, two Ears, and but one tongue to inform us, that we should hear and see twice so much as speak. The Eyes and Ears are Receivers, the Mind the Treasurer, 
B. Hall Med.  and the Tongue the Steward; if the Steward disburseth more than, or as much as is brought in, there will be but a poor treasury: Therefore let thy mouth be shut with fidelity, nor to blab secrets, and let thine ear not be too open to receive them. (3) One justly wished, that Tale-bearers should be hanged by the Tongue, Tale-hearers by the Ears.  

So many wounds mayst thou endure as he,  
450. At whose great sacrifice no knife must be.   
Osiris was cut in pieces by his brother Typhon, therefore his Priests in remembrance of that, do use no knife at their sacrifice. After his death, they thought an Ox which they met, had been the soul of Osiris, this therefore the Egyptians did worship for a God, calling him Serapis, that is, an Ox head, and Apis, that is, an Ox face.  
(1) That is the very name whereby the Fathers used to express Idolatry, derived from the Egyptians to the Israelites, first set up in the wilderness, and after at Dan and Bethel by Jeroboam; Some say the first institution was in memory of Joseph: for what fit Emblem to continue the remembrance of Joseph (had it not proved an Idol) than an Ox, the lively Hieroglyphic of an industrious husbandman, by whose care the Egyptians in the famine were (preserved. (2) Diodorus Siculus thinks that the Egyptians worshipped an Ox for the Sun, that is strong like a Giant to run his course. Typhon, that is, the Earth, doth seem to kill the Sun, by cutting off his light three hundred sixty six times in the year. (3) As those Priests did in their sacrifice, commemorate their slain Osiris; So (with reverence be it sp●●●●) we celebrate the Sacrament of the supper, in remembrance of the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.  

As those, whom mother Cybele forced to dance  
To Phrygian notes, thy privy-members lance.   
The great mother was called Rhoa, from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to flow; because the Earth thereby signified, doth flow and abound with all good things: and Ops, because it affordeth all kind of wealth: and Vesta, because it is clothed with all sorts of fruits and flowers; and Cybele from Cymbals or from Cybelus, a hill in Phrygia. Her Priests were called Galli, or Corybantes. At their sacrifice they danced with drums and timbrels, being possessed with madness; they gelded themselves and ran about, shaking their bodies and their heads.  
(1) The Earth is the mother of all, why then should Grandees boast of their Pedigree? The King and the beggar came out of the same Earth, and the one shall enjoy no more of the Earth than the other, when they are dead.  
(2) The same Cybele, which was mother of the Gods, was mother also of the Giants: the same earth produceth food and poison, the same Church affordeth sons of God and children of Satan. (3) These new Quakers do much resemble those old Priests for their madness, shaking, and many other giddy qualities, but ('tis pity) they want castration.  

Of man, as Atys be nor man nor mad,  
Harsh timbrels by thy lustful hand be played.   
Atys, a beautiful boy, was beloved of Cybele, and made chief of all her Priests, upon condition that he should live chaste; but he deflowered a Nymph called Samgarit, therefore the Goddess struck him with madness, wherein he gelded himself, and by his example, all her Priests after were gelt: But many authors do report, that Atys, not willing to yield to Cybeles lustful fuits, to preserve his much tempted chastity, gelt himself.  
(1) Atys is said to be turned into a Pinetree, by reason of that trees infertility, therefore said to be gelt; beloved of Cybele, because the Pine is consecrated to that Goddess. (2) It is less damage, far less disgrace, to lose my coat with honest Joseph, yea my privy members with Atys, then to lose my soul by making my body, which is the member of Christ, the member of an Harlot. The Beaver perceiving that the hunter pursueth him for his testicles, cuts them off, and so doth save his life.  

455. Of that great mother's beast assume the face,  
As she that lost, and he that won the race.   
Cybele the mother of the Gods, was drawn in a chariot by Lions, into which kind of creatures she turned Hippomenes and Atalanta, for their unreasonable lust in her Temple.  
(1) See here the dignity of the Earth, meant by Cybele, the mother of All, she is drawn by Lions, the most noble of all creatures. Those children therefore be worse than beasts that do not submit themselves to their parents, when Lions bow their necks to their common Mother the Earth. (2) In regard of the savage fury of lust, Hippomenes and Atalanta are said to be turned into furious Lions.  

And left Limone thus should die alone,  
Let Horses gnaw thy flesh unto the bone.   
Of Limone read before.  

Or as Cassandra's King, thou worse than he,  
460. With clods of each may'st thou o'er whelmed be.   
Cassandrus King of Cassandra, for his cruelty and his covetousness, was by his subjects quelled with Earth.  
(1) It is no paradox to be rich with a little, and to be poor with much; because content is the poor man's riches, and desire the rich man's poverty, for it is never satisfied. That head of Cyrus that so much thirsted after blood, at the last was drowned in a barrel of blood by Tomyris. covetous earthly Muckwormes have never enough till their mouths are full of earth.  

As Abas Heir, as Lyrness King be slain,  
And headlong cast into the restless main.   
Acrisius the Argive King, being told by Oracle, that he should be slain by the son of his daughter Danae, enclosed her to prevent his destiny, together with her Nurse, in a tower of brass, where Jupiter descending in a golden shower, was received into her embracements. Perseus, the child of them begotten, was shut up by Acrisius with his mother in an Art, and exposed to the fortune of the Sea: Ovid wisheth Ibis not only to be cast into the sea, as Perseus, who was saved, and became after King of Lerna, but to be killed and drowned.  
(1) Jupiter, saith Lactantius, endeavouring to violate Danäe with store of gold, corrupted her chastity. Gold conquers Virginity, Towers, Castles, easier than the Sword. Let a golden Ass come to Athens he may reverently proceed Quid non? Perseus is feigned to be born of Jupiter, for his noble achievements and felicity; he had the wings of Mercury, which signify celerity, tied to his feet and not to his shoulders, to declare, that in warlike affairs men should deliberate in the beginning, but be swift in the prosecution: He had Mars his Falchion, which expresseth policy and circumvention; Pluto's Head-piece a concealment of Counsels, and Pallas Shield a provident Preservation; being all the necessary accomplishments of a Soldier. (2) No place can secure us from temptations and sin: Angels fell in Heaven, Adam in Paradise, as Danae in the tower of brass. Therefore I say unto all, Watch.  

At Phoebus' altar sacrifice thy breath,  
Conquered Theodotus suffered such a death.   
Theodotus presuming to be called King of Bactrians, was overcome by Arsaces' King of Persia, and after sacrificed by him to Apollo the God of Learning.  
(1) Were all the enemies to Apollo and Learning sacrified upon altars, revived Muses would again ascend their own Parnassus, pluck down their harps from the mournful willows, and be re-adorned with their wont joyful bays. Knowledge hath no worse enemy then impudent ignorance. Ahab was punished for sparing Benhadad the enemy of God. Amici (much more inimici) vitia fi feras facis tua. Connivance at sin is compliance with sin.  

465. Thee let Abdera one day vote to die,  
Let stones upon thy head like hailstones fly.   
People of Abdera a town in Thracia, the native place of Democritus the Philosopher, and Protagoras, at the beginning of each year were wont to vote one man for the Commonwealth to die, and he was stoned.  
(1) The ancient Jews, at the Feast of Expiation used to offer two Goats, 
Godwins Moses and Aaron.  whereof one was sacrificed; on the head of the other, called the Scape-Goat, the Priest disburdened the sins of the whole congregation, and let him scape into the wilderness. By the escape Goat is shadowed the impassibility of Ch●ists divine nature, by the other his sufferings in his manhood. The modern Jews upon the same day, the Men take a white Cock, and the Women a Hen, and thrice swinging it about the Priest's head, do thus speak: This Cock shall be a propitiation for me. And why a Cock? because (say they) Gibher hath sinned, therefore Gibher shall make satisfaction; Now Gibher in Hebrew signifies a man, in their Talmud a Cock: Hence I conceive came that common saying, oftener read then understood. Albo Gallo ne manum admoliaris, Lay not thy hand upon a white Cock, that is, Rob not God of his offering. The Grecians at the yearly expiation of their Cities, tumbled down condemned persons into the sea, saying, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Be thou a propitiation for us. So in a great infection, they sacrificed men, and called them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The Apostle useth both these words, 1 Cor. 4.13. We are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Filth and offscouring. We are as odious, and laden with cursing and reviling, as those persons who were offered up by way of public expiation. Christ was made a sin for us sinners, and freely offered himself for us, the just for the unjust.  

Or l●ke Hippomenes son, Jove in his ire  
With bolts thee kill, or like Dosithoes sire.   
1. Prester, son of Hippomenes, railed at Jupiter, for that he had justly thrown his father out of his kingdom for his cruelty, and was therefore killed with a thunderbolt; but Vegetius reports this of Capaneus, son of Hipponous.  
(1) To make and not execute laws, is to make a private man's offence the sin of the public: For to omit the punishment of it, 
Dal. Aph.  is to commit it. (2) To take offence at the just punishment of the offender, is to disapprove justice, and approve the offence. Such a reviler should be whipped into good manners and obedience, for example; lest he breaks forth into like enormities, and draw more after him: Caesar when his Nobles could not come to his royal Feast for tempests, commanded his Archers to shoot up arrows at Jupiter in heaven, but they turned back on their own heads. No sin of Israel was so grievous to to God as Murmuring. Repine not when God doth punish the sins of thy friend, lest he dip his arrows in thy blood too.  
2. Atrax was slain by a thunderbolt for destroying his own daughter Dofithoae, because she ●ay with Jupiter.  
(1) In the hands of a Parent is the power of correction, not destruction of their children. Parents should pray that God would give their sinful children grace, and time to repent, not ungraciously to cut off their time of repentance by untimely death. The Magistrate beareth the sword in vain, if a private person may execute public justice. (2) Divine vengeance will not leave cruelty unrevenged: Therefore if thy brother offend, forgive him seventy times seven times, considering that if God should call thee to an account, thou canst not answer one of a thousand.  

Si quoties homines peccant, sua fulmina mittat  
Jupiter, etc.—   
When the child falls into a gross offence, put thy hand into thy own bosom and ask, What have I done?  

Autonoes' sister Maia's sister's son,  
470. Or that unskilful Coachman Phaeton.   
1. Semele sister of Autonoe, daughter of Cadmus, having too often enjoyed the company of Jupiter, at last denied him any further approach, unless he came to her as to Juno, with the ensigns of his deity, he embracing her with lightning and thunder, killed her.  
(1) Those who too curiously and boldly search into Divine Majesty, shall be oppressed with the brightness of his glory. (2) Jupiter and Juno are said to couple with thunder and lightning, because lightning and thunder proceed from the conjunction of the etherial heat and acrial cold. Jupiter had a threeforked thunderbolt, so there be three sorts of lightning, the drier dissipates, the moister blasts, the other melts money in bags, and swords in scabbards, instantly lifting up liquor in vessels, without breach or impair to the thing contained, slaying Infants in the womb without mortal prejudice to the mother. By the variety of lightning, learn that God doth not equally punish all offenders. (3) Be not unequally yoked. Semele is an unfit match for Jupiter Si qua velis aptè nubere, 
Ovid.  nube pari. If the Earthen pot swims with the Brazen, one touch will break it. Pry not, peep not into the Ark; The satire kissing the lightning burned his lips. The Fly busy with the Candle burns her wings. The common people must not come nigh the Hill, where was lightning and thunder, lest they die. Exod. 19 Be content with things revealed, thinking thyself happy that God hath made thee of his court, though not of his counsel. 
B. Hall.   
2. Porphyrion son of Sisyphus by Ops, following the wicked example of his father, was slain by a thunderbolt.  
(1) Patris ad exemplum soboles componitur omnis. Though original sin be derived by propagation, yet actual sins are for the most part committed by imitation and example. Patterns work upon us more th●n precepts. A good father is like a sweet ointment, perfuming all the house, but a wicked one is worse than the fiery serpent, he stings the children to death of body and soul. Fellow not a multitude to sin, much less a single person; though he be thy father; lest like sin draw on like judgement.  
3. Phaeton son of Sol and Clymene, obtained of his father leave to rule his chariot one day; but for want of strength and skill, the Horses ran so near they had almost burned the earth, had not Jupiter struck him down with a Thunderbolt.  
(1) God could not punish a man more sometimes, then in granting him his desires. The father here grants what an enemy would have wished: thus ruin comes by indulgence. For History: Phaeton King of the The sports is feigned to be son of Phoebus, and to fall from his chariot, in that he first assayed to find out the course of the Sun, but was prevented by death. 
Nat. Com.  In that time abundance of fire fell from heaven, therefore he is said to burn the world. Physically, Phaeton, as his name signifies, is a bright and burning inflammation, which proceeds from the Sun. Clymene his mother, is water, from whom the Sun attracts those exhalations; these set on fire produce a vehement heat, which thunder and lightning follow; hence he is said to be struck with lightning by Jupiter. For Morality; Behold here a rash and ambitious Prince, presented to the life, inflamed with desire of rule. The horses of the Sun are the common people, unruly and prone to innovation; who finding the weakness of their Prince, fly into all exorbitances, so to a general confusion.  

As Aeolus' son, and one of that fierce strain,  
Whence Arctos came that seldom threatens rain.   
1. Salmonius son of Aeolus (not the King of the winds) was King of Elis, where he built a City; not so contented, he gave out that he was Jupiter, and to gain credit to his report, he feigned thunder and lightning, by rattling of brass pans, and drums in his coach, and casting up squibs into the air: at last Jupiter by true thunder killed him.  
(1) Content is a lesson too hard for the headst of the highest form, a King. We seldom see an humble Prince, but we commonly see proud beggars. (2) Tempests beat at lofty Cedars, and thunder smites the highest mountains, when humble shrubs, and lowest valleys be in safety. (3) We may and must imitate our Redeemer, as he is Man, in Mercy and Humility; not as he is God, in Miracles and Majesty.  
2. Menius son of Lycaon, brother of Calistho, that was turned into a dry Star in the North, called Arctos, seeing his father turned into a Wolf, and his house on fire, railed against Jupiter, and was therefore slain with a thunderbolt.  
(1) The voice of a King is like the roaring of a Lion, but the voice of God like thunder. A King will do what pleaseth him, and who dare say, what dost thou? Eccles. 8.3. Who art thou then that contendest with thy Maker, who is just in all his works and holy in all his ways? A swine will cry, a Lamb is dumb at the slaughter: so is the good Christian and the bad under the hand of affliction. Better with Eli say, It is the Lord, let him do what he pleaseth; or with the Church to tremble at the judgement of God upon Ananias, etc. then as Jobs wife bid her husband curse God and die. If we kick against the pricks, we shall like stubborn Jades be kicked and pricked the more.  

As Macedon, by lightning, and her mate,  
Were burned, on thee fall like avenging fate.   
Macedon a Queen of Macedonia, with her husband, for their impiety were both burned to death with lightning.  
(1) It is dangerous when subjects in a kingdom do give themselves over to impiety: for when the Body Natural or Politic is diseased, it will affect or infect the Head. More dangerous when the sickness gins in the head, for all the members are apt to sympathise. Regis ad exemplum; Therefore Jeroboam in holy Writ is so often famed with this infamous addition, (Jeroboam the son of Nebat that caused Israel to sin.) Though virtue seems more amiable, vice seems more imitable, chief in a Prince. Therefore the strumpet Lais boasted that she had a greater company at her school, than Socrates at his.  

475. Those tear thee whom Latona hath exiled  
From Delos, 'cause young Thrasus they had killed.   
Thrasus' a young man coming to offer sacrifice in Diana's Temple, was killed by dogs, therefore she commanded that no dogs should ever after come near that place, and sent a plague among them.  
(1) Thus the Devil, that hellish Cerberus, who is like a dog in a manger, is most busy in tempting us, when we are most busy in serving God. So Pharaoh was never so violent against Israel, as when they were departing from Egypt towards Canaan; And have not later ages afforded some snarling curs to by't, and blind whelps to bark at us, when we offer to serve the true God in his holy Temple? God sent Lions among the Assyrians for hindering devotion, 2 Kings 17. and plagues upon the Egyptians. Beware of the concision, beware of dogs.  

Or those tore him that spied Diana bare,  
Or Linus who was King Crotopus heir.   
1. Diana bathing herself in the valley of Gergaphia, Actaeon by chance beheld her naked; the blushing and angry Goddess transforms him into the shape of a long-lived Hart, and his dogs tore him in pieces.  
(1) Some Author's report that Diana possessed his dogs with an imagination that their master was a Hart. And perhaps they ran mad in the Canicular days, 
Sandys.  through the power of the Moon, that is Diana, augmented by the entrance of the Sun into Leo: and what force then could resist the worrying of their master? Some do aver, that Lucian the Apostata and Atheist came to the like end. But this Fable may teach us, what dangerous curiosity it is, to search into the secrets of Princes, or by chance to discover their nakedness, who thereby incurring their hatred, ever after live the life of an Hart, full of fear and suspicion, often accused by their own servants, to their utter ruin. Let us therefore guard our eyes and ears, nor desire to know or see more than concern us. Actaeon may be said to cast off the mind of a man, and degenerate into a beast, when he neglected the pursuit of virtue and heroic actions. Some imagine that he is said to be devoured of his hounds, because he was impoverished by maintaining them; but what was that expense unto a Prince? I rather agree with those that think it was by maintaining ravenous and riotous scycophants, who have too oft exhausted the Exchequers of wealthy Princes, and reduced them to extreme necessity. Those whom we feed at our own tables, will first seek to cut our throats.  
2. Linus son of Apollo and Psammate, daughter of Crotopus King of the Argives, in fear of her father's wrath, was hidden among sedge, where dogs came and devoured him.  
(1) Indulgence of too kind mothers, hath I confess, undone more children, but severity of unkind fathers hath destroyed too many. Some flying the fury of a dogged father, have desperately dispatched themselves by a dog's death. Art thou a father? take heed lest by cruelty to thy own child, thou prove to thy own self as Menedemus, Heautontimorumenos, thy own tormentor.  

Be stung of venomous Snakes no less than she,  
480. Oeägrus daughter by Calliope.   
Eurydice wife to Orpheus, son of Oeägrus and Calliope, sporting among the herbs and flowers, was stung by a Serpent to death, and was brought to hell, whither her husband went to redeem her by his Music; by which he drew tears and consent from Pluto and Proserpina; provided that he looked not behind him to behold her, before they had past the confines of Styx; but he could not forbear, so lost her again.  
(1) This Fable invites us to moderation in our desires, lest we lose what we affect, by too much affecting. Hell may seem but mere perturbations of Orpheus mind, for the death of his beloved, which was pacified by the harmony of reason, when looking back, that is, recalling her to his remembrance, he falls into a desperate relapse, and seems to lose her a second time. (2) Justice, that is, Eurydice, and a Prince, that is Orpheus, should be married together. If this be stung to death by the Serpent of war, the prince by the melodious harmony of peace should revive it. Orpheus in love ventured to hell to redeem his wife: Some christians will rather wish their Wives in hell, then strive to keep, much less to fetch them thence. (3) The soul of man like Eurydice, delighting herself among the flowers of pleasure, was stung by that old Serpent the Devil, and delivered from the nethermost hell, by the true Orpheus, Jesus Christ.  

Or like Hypsiphiles boy, or who by force,  
And point of sword did pierce the wooden horse.   
1. Hypsiphile Queen of Lemnos, being condemned for saving her father, when all the men of the Isle were slain, fled to Nemea, where Lycurgus made her Nurse of his son Opheltes or Achimorus, who being left by her in a Meadow, was killed by a Serpent, for which she was sentenced to die, but was preserved by the Argives.  
(1) Note here the unconstancy of worldly honour, To day a Queen, to morrow a Nurse; to day as rich as Croesus, to morrow as poor as Irus. Crowns and Sceptres are slippery things. (2) See how Providence protects and prolongs the life of those that like Hypsiphile do honour and preserve their parents. (3) Lycurgus sons name was not only Opheltes, because he was killed by a Serpent, but Archimorus, from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beginning, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 death, because he died an infant; Death loves green fruit as well as ripe, yea green hath lately tasted sweeter than any other, for more Infants died this year (by small pox) then in any one of this last age.  
2. Laocoon son of Priamus King of Troy, was Priest to Apollo, he with the point of a spear or a sword, pierced the Trojan horse, for which the Gods were offended, and sent Serpents to kill him, as a despiser of the gift of Pallas.  
(1) The Evangelical Prophet Esaias was son of Amos, who (as the best writers do conceive) was brother to King Azariah. In those times than it seemeth that Laocoon the son of a King, and the best of men, thought not themselves too good to be Priests; but in Jeroboams time, and later days, the worst of men are made Priests, and Priests are made the worst of men. (2) As sacred things should not be touched with unwashed hands, so State matters should admit no vulgar handling. In business of War the Churchman's only weapon should be prayer, he must not lift up his hand to reform, or his voice to reprove, much less take up a sword, as Laocoon. (3) Seditious Preachers against the Politic, and scandalous inveighers against the state Ecclesiastical, have brought distraction to the State, and destruction to themselves. 
Dal. Aph.  A Minister should not intrude into the office or place of a Soldier or Mechanic, nor they into his. Ne suitor ultra crepidam.  

No safer than Elpenor climb a ladder,  
Let strength of wine make thee so mad or madder.   
Elpenor one of Ulysses mates, being drunk with wine, in the house of the Enchantress Circe, climbed a ladder and broke his neck.  
(1) Circe turned many of Ulysses followers into swine, by making them drink of her charmed cup, and moving her rod over them; wherein perhaps the Devil Aped Moses rod, with which he wrought such wonders. Circe is so called from mixture, because the mixture of the Elements is necessary to generation: 
Sandys.  She turned men into several sorts of beasts, because corruption of the one begets a form far different from itself. Ulysses could not lose his shape, who being fortified with immortal power of wisdom, was not subject to mutation. The body composed of the four Elements is like Ulysses mates, obnoxious to change, by diseases and corruption, the Soul like Ulysses can by no assault of nature be converted into a beast, so highly participating of Reason. Drunkenness breaks the neck of a man's estate, sometimes of his body, as here of Elpenor. But a man bewitched to a whore shall be brought to a morsel of bread, and so go down to the chamber of death by famine, if he comes not sooner to his ladder end.  

485. Do thou like each foolhardy Dryops fall,  
Whom rash Theodomas to war did call.   
Theodomas denieth Hylas son of Hercules provision of victuals, Hercules killeth some of his Oxen; Theodomas raiseth an army against him; Hercules conquers him, and the people called the Dryopes, that came to aid him.  
(1) It is good sleeping (they say) in a whole skin; A man being near drowning in a river, sinks himself and the party that comes to help him, if he once catch hold. (2) The Pelican to save her young ones from the fire, which the shepherds make to catch them, seeks to blow it out with her wings, and so burns herself. I had rather bewail the fire of dissension afar off, then stir in the coals, lest I fire my own wings, 
B. Hall.  before I quench that. In Church-division, I will not meddle more, then by prayers to God, and entreaties to men, seeking my own safety and the peace of the Church, in freedom of my thought, and silence of my tongue. (3) That foolish churlish Nabal, 1 Sam. 25. like Theodomas, denying David some provision, endangered himself and his whole family.  

Or in thy den some valiant man thee slay,  
As Cacus whom stolen oxen did bewray.   
Cacus a mighty Giant, son of Vulcan, depopulated part of Italy that lies about mount Aventine, with his robberies; he is said to vomit fire, in that he burned the corn on the ground, and enviously destroyed what he could not reap. He, while Hercules slept, took away the best of his oxen, and drew them into his cave by the tails, that no impression might be seen of any feet going thither, but they were discovered by their bellowing: So Hercules with his club killed Cacus.  
(1) The she Bear retires backward into her den, that she might not be traced by the hunter. A cunning thief to avoid suspicion, turns the shoes of his stolen horse backward: Such is the Delphic language of ambiguous Turncoats. (2) Cacus by interpretation is Evil, which lurks in Caves, because never secure, when Hercules or virtue vindicates his own by the destruction of the other, although with hypocrisy and fraudulent mists he endeavours to conceal himself.  

Who brought, with Lernian poison died the gift,  
430. And died with's blood the Euboean sea and cleft.   
Licas servant unto Hercules, brought his master a garment dipped in the poisonous blood of Nessus, for which cause Hercules being enraged, threw him down a cleft into the Euboean sea, where he was turned into a rock.  
(1) This rock lying against the Caenean Promontory, resembles a Man, which perhaps gave an argument to this fiction. (2) It is almost the highest pitch of Fortune, to be a favourite to a Prince, but it ofttimes proves unfortunate, not by any guilty intent of the servant, but innocent ignorance of his master's intention. (3) Rash Kings in an hasty passion, have killed their dearest friends, as Alexander did Clitus, and Hercules Lycus: It is Hallifax law, first to condemn and execute, and afterwards examine the cause.  

Or into Tartar from a rock fall dead,  
As he that Plato's book of death had read.   
Cleombrotus a Philosopher of the Academic sect, as soon as he had read the book called Phaedon, concerning the immortality of the soul, compiled by Plato, who was scholar of Socrates, cast himself down from a rock into the sea, hastening to enjoy the happiness he had read of.  
(1) Summum nec metuas diem, nec optes. No fear, nor wish thy latter end. Be not ashamed to live, nor afraid to die, nor hasten thy death in hope of a better life. The soldier ought not to move unless the Commander give the word. (2) Although our light afflictions are not to be compared to the eternal weight of glory immortal, though we have a crown of righteousness laid up for us, it is rather with patience to be expected, then preposterously to be snatched. The kingdom of heaven is not to be caught with such kind of violence. (3) Those heathen Philosophers may rise up in judgement against these modern Heretics, that do hold that the body and soul die together.  

Or he that Theseus guileful sail did view,  
Or as the boy that one from Troy's wall threw.   
1. Aegaeus standing on the shore, and seeing the black sail on his son Theseus' ship, at his return from conquering the Minotaur, contrary to his sons promise to put forth a white one, threw himself down into the sea, which ever since is called by his name, the Aegaean sea.  
(1) As well Joy as Fear distracts the faculties. (2) Prosperity makes a man forget his own father, many times himself. (3) Parents are not more carefully mindful of their children, than children are carelessly forgetful of their Parents. 
Virgil. Aen.  Omnis in Ascanio chari stat cura parentis. Rivers never return a stream up to the spring from whence they flow, nor children like love unto their parents. Wise and true was the ancient saying; To the Gods, Parents, and Teachers, equivalent recompense cannot be rendered.  
2. Astyanax only son of valiant Prince Hector, was by Ulysses thrown headlong from a Turret of Troy, lest he might afterwards claim the kingdom, and take revenge upon the Greeks.  
(1) A Conqueror, if he would securely enjoy what he hath won, must pluck up both branch and root of the former stock. Caesar will endure no superior, nor Pompey admit an equal: Herod therefore would not only have killed Christ, whom he heard to be King of the Jews, but burned the ancient Records of the Kings. That government whose foundation is laid in blood, and oppression is like a building, whose groundsels are rotten, it may for a time be under-propped and kept up, but once falling, no possible means can stay it.  

495. Or Bacchus' Nurse and Aunt, or who was sent  
Headlong, because the saw he did invent.   
1. Ino sister of Semele, mother of Bacchus, was his Aunt and Nurse, she being second wife to Athamas, whom Juno did infuriate, flying her husband's rage, that would have killed her for a Lioness, and her son Melicertes for a whelp, threw herself and her son into the sea.  
(1) Ino is called among the Greeks Leucothea, among Latins Matuta, or the Morning. Melicertes is in Greek called Palemon, in Latin Portunus, which signifies the driving force of storms; he is son of Matuta, the Morning, because a red morning brings forth tempests. (2) Learn by the pride of Ino, to be moderate in prosperity; No man knows what, where, or when, shall be his death. (3) Ino, a Heathen, disdained not to nurse her sister's child, but (the more shame and pity) some Christians refuse to nurse their own; thus they show themselves but half-mothers', yea more unnatural to their young ones, then savage beasts.  
2. Perdix, cousin and pupil to Daedalus, rejoicing at the death of Icarus, and because he was very ingenious (for at twelve years of age he invented the saw) was in envy thrown down by Daedalus from the top of Minerva's tower in Athens, but he was supported by the Goddess, and turned to a Partridge, a bird of his own name.  
(1) There is no envy so great and deadly as that between men of the same profession, as Daedalus and Perdix. Figulus Figulo invidet. Nay some will violate all obligations to remove the rivals of their praise; wishing their necks broke that they may not stand in their light. But Minerva or admirable Art sustains, and giveth life to happy endeavours.  

Or as the Lydian girl whose neck was broke,  
'Cause against Mars reviling words she spoke.   
Ilice daughter of Ibicus a Lydian, being lustfully beloved of Mars, by the help of Diana was kept from his violence, yet she reviled against him, wherewith Mars being much incensed, killed her father, with which Ilice being much grieved, fell mad, and threw herself from a rock into the sea.  
(1) Innocent virginity had been too often a prey to the impetuous soldiery of Mars, had not preserving providence made a rescue. (2) A railing and reviling tongue bespeaketh destruction to itself and friends. But why should Ibicus the father suffer when the child offends? Perhaps the offence came by him, for want of due correction, restriction and instruction. The Mother in the fable rather deserved to be hanged then her son, for that she connived and not whipped him, being a boy, for stealing a book at school. (3) Grief for loss of friends deceased is a sign of love, not to them but our selves. It is misery enough to lose a father, why should I double it, in losing myself too?  

Meet in thy field a whelping Lioness,  
500 Let her thee kill as one did Paphages.   
Paphages King of Ambracia, in his walk meeting a Lioness with whelp, was killed by her.  
(1) Paphages may be a fat rich Prince, the Lioness with her whelps may be a numerous army invading his plenteous kingdom. (2) In natural bodies the longer they subsist in perfect health, 
Dal. Aph.  the more dangerous is the disease, when it cometh, and the longer in curing, as having none of these humours spent, which by distemper give foment and force to the approaching malady: So it is in the body Politic, when war once seizeth upon a Country, rich in the plenties of a long peace, and full with the surfeit of continual ease, it never leaves purging those superfluities till all be wasted and consumed. Thus the roaring Lion of hell falls upon a soul being full and secure.  

As to Lycurgus' son that climbed a tree,  
And Idmon bold, a Boar thy ruin be.   
(1) Butes (whom some authors call Ancaus, or Angaeus) son of Lycurgus' King of Thracia, being fiercely pursued by a Boar, climbed a tree, but before he was up, the Boar pulled him down again and slew him.  
(1) This when we are climbing the tree of knowledge and sublime understanding of divine truth, that Bore of the wilderness, the Heretic, labours to pluck us back into errors. Thus when we are ascending the tree of life towards heaven, that Serpentine Satan endeavours to draw us back, into deadly sin, and damned Hell.  
2. Idmon a soothsayer, among the Argonauts, was in Bythinia slain by a Boar.  
(1) Soothsayers and Astrologers can foreshow to others what evil they may shun, but cannot prevent what hangeth over their own heads; Thales gazing on the Stars fell into a ditch. Nequicquam sapit, qui sibi non sapit. If thou be wise, be wise unto thyself. The Bell rolls in others to sermon, but hears not a word itself. Moses brought the Israelites to Canaan, but entered not in himself. Many (I fear) show others the way to heaven, and come short themselves. Sic vos non vobis mellificatis Apes.  

A Bore thy death's wound give, when he is dead,  
As upon whom fell such a creatures head.   
Thoas a famous hunter in Andragathia, was wont to hang on a tree the head and feet of all he caught, as a sacrifice to Diana; at last having got a mighty Boar, he kept the feet and hanged up only the head by a string, which fell upon him, being a sleep under the tree.  
(1) Although the Priests were allowed part of the Jewish sacrifice, the whole was offered unto God. (2) If so fearful and sudden death befell Ananias and Saphira, because they detained part of their own gift devoted to the Church, Acts 5. what may sacrilegious latrons expect, who never gave to the Church as much as one of the widows mites, yet take from it to their own use, the most part of that was given to others? (3) Offer not to God the blind or the lame, serve not God by halves, but give him the honour due unto his name; being Holocausts, whole presents to him the● ought to be feared. God might justly require all, yet he accepts the tenths of our means, and the seventh of our time, shall we grudge him that? God forbidden.  

505. Like them be thou, whom fruit of Pinetree killed,  
As Phrygia's hunter, and Berentius child.   
Atys a Phrygian hunter, and Nauclus son of Berentius, sleeping under a Pinetree, were both slain by apples falling from the same tree.  
(1) Mille modis morimur mortales, nascimur uno. By one way we are born, by thousands we die. As God can save by small means, so he can destroy. Death is a long sleep, and sleep a short death; some have fallen into such a deadly sleep they never waked. Lie down therefore with the Prophet David's petition in thy mouth or heart; Lord lighten mine eyes that I sleep not in death, Psal. 13.  

And if to Minos' sands thou voyage make,  
Let Cretians thee for a Sicilian take.   
For the death of Minos' King of Crete, killed in Sicilia by King Cocalus or his daughter, in the pursuit after Daedalus, the Cretians ever since so hate that people, that they put all to death that arrive in those coasts.  
(1) The Aspic pursueth him which hath hurt or killed his mate, and knows him among a multitude; him he still hunteth and layeth for his life, breaking through all difficulties and dangers to come unto him: 
dal. Aph.  So is revenge furiously outrageous, and outrageously furious. Yea for the cause of one single person, families, cities, kingdoms fall at variance, and hardly or never be reconciled. In revenge of one Dinah, Simeon and Levi destroyed all the Sichemits, Gen. 34. but cursed was their wrath, Gen. 49.7.  

510. As to Alebas daughter it befell,  
And to her husband, let a house thee quell.   
Alcidice daughter of Alebas, a Larissean, with her husband Lycoris, by the fall of their house were slain.  
(1) Whether these persons suffered this punishment for any offence to the Gods (for the father Alebas was an oppressor) or their house fell by chance, I read not. But holy Writ reports, that while Jobs children were rioting, the house fell down and killed them. I will wind up this application with our Saviour's caveat unto the Jews, and in them to all; Think ye that those on whom the tower of Shilo fell, were greater sinners more than you? verily, I say unto you, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish, Luke 13.  

As Tiberinus and Evenus named  
The streams, where they were drowned, be thou so famed.   
Tiberinus or Tiberius King of the Alban, was drowned in the river Albiola, which since is called Tiber, or Tiberis, after his name. So Evenus, son of Mars and Marpesse was drowned in the river Lycormas, and gave that river his name Evenus.  
(1) The noblest honour the ancients could invent for the dead, was a glorious Monument, with their Names, Titles, and Deserts: but,  

Auson.  Mors etiam faxis, nominibusque venit. Death as well seizeth upon Monuments as Men. (2) Immortal fame was the utmost hope of the Heathen after death▪ And what more doth that Christian expect, who takes more care to have houses called of his name, than his soul in an heavenly mansion? The Lord be pleased to write my name in the book of life, then let my fame on earth be as mortal as my body.  

As Hyrtacus his son one fix thee dead  
Upon a stake, let man's food be thy head.   
Nisus son of Hyrtacus, adventuring to redeem his friend Euryalus, being caught by the army of the Kutilians, willingly endured the same death with him, their bodies were cast to be eaten by men, and their heads put upon stakes.  
(1) He that is a friend to all, is a friend to none; he that sincerely is a friend to one, is truly a friend to himself: for a friend is second self. Let no man therefore, like Janus, bear two faces under one hood, nor blow hot and cold out of one mouth. Let friends like Harpocrates twins, laugh and cry together, partake and sympathise in every estate. Learn of our voluntary friend, and undeserved Saviour, that freely died, not with us, but for us, not for his friends, but enemies.  

515. As Brotheus did, when death was his desire  
Thy body cast into a flaming fire.   
Brotheus, son of Minerva by Vulcan, because he was jeered for his deformed body, cast himself into the fire and died.  
(1) Vasius that deformed Roman, to prevent others, would, first jeer himself. (2) What nature fails in one, is recompensed in another part. Who more ugly shapen than Aesop? who more ingenious? Better have the Fox's soul body and witty mind, then like the Leopard to be fair and foolish. Siqua latent meliora puto. Let no man call his brother Racha or fool, mocking him for deformity of his body, or infirmity of mind; lest he incur the judgement, Mat. 5. But why, because others deride me should I destroy what God hath form? It is he that made us, not we ourselves. Praised be his name that he made me a Man, not a Toad. The Potter might have made me a vessel of dishonour as well as honour.  

Or suffer death shut in a Cave, as he  
That did compile the gainless Tragedy.   
Chaerilus wrote the acts of Alexander the great: For every good verse in his Poem, he was promised a crown of gold, and for every bad one a lash: of all his verses only seven were allowed, the number of the bad was so great that he was lashed to death in a secret room. Hereupon Alexander was wont to say, that he had rather be, in Homer, deformed Thersites, then, in Chaerilus, the valiant Achilles.  
(1) The Muses are the daughters of Apollo and Mnemosyne, to express Poetry that divine inspiration nourished by memory. Eupheme was their nurse, for praise doth cherish noble endowments. Their habitation was Parnassus and Helicon, pleasant places; For Poetry is a most delightful study. The Muses were crowned with green and bitter leaves of Laurel; for the pains of Poets are bitter, and constant: They are Women for their pregnancy in knowledge: They are Nine; of the triple Trine, which flows from the perfection of number: from these premises I may conclude; That Dullman Chaerilus, that ventures on Poetry, and Dominus Mechanic, that leaps from the panel to the pulpit, deserves as much a whip as the dull Ass that presumed to the Harp.  

Or as he perished that iambics penned,  
520. So let thy saucy tongue procure thy end.   
Archilochus, who first invented the jambick verse, was banished by the Lacedæmonians, and afterward slain by Crocalus a soldier; and his books condemned.  
(1) Sometimes wit becomes a Woe, and Books a bane; Non hunc quaesitum munus in usum. Thus banishment was the bitter doom of my sweet Poet Ovid. The pen and the tongue be the gates as well of death as life: Dip not therefore thy pen in gall, lest it prove to thee like the writing on the wall unto Belshazzar. Rather than so,  
Scinde leves calamos, & frange Thalia libellos. Break thy pens and tear thy books my Muse. (2) Let thy speech be seasoned with salt, that it may minister grace to the hearers▪ (3) If thou speakest what thou shouldest not, thou wilt hear what thou wouldst not.  

As who with halting verse 'gainst Athens railed,  
And hateful died after his victuas sailed.   
Aristophanes' reviling against the praise of Athens, which the Orators before had so highly extolled, was by public command famished to death. This is reported by Alcyat of Hipponactes, that railed against one Athenis in verses called Seazons, which are lame or halting iambics.  
(1) When Fame is once fled out, Pegasus will hadly overtake it. If thou art cried up by a strong opinion of the Grandees; the rabble of the vulgar will never cry thee down. What is one malapert Aristophanes against all Athens? That's but an Owl who thinks with his single note to drown the warble of an hundred Nightingales. He deserves to feed upon the Commons like an Ass that brays out his simple No, when the general vote of the whole house hath pronounced I.  

As that harsh Lyric Poet died, so may  
Thy hand prove false, and be thy own decay.   
Alcaeus the Lyric Poet broke his promise which he made to Pittacus, by joining right hands, and after railed also against him with bitter jeers and mocks, for which at last he was banished.  
(1) A man's eye and his honour are two tender pieces, 
dal. Aph.  the one cannot abide the rough touch of the hand, nor the other endure the smart jerk of the tongue. As therefore by the owners they are carefully preserved, so by others that deal with them, they should be tenderly used. (2) Such pregnant wits as had rather lose their friend then their jest, must learn the lesson that is taught a soldier, to take heed while they levelly and discharge upon others, they lie not so open that they be hit themselves.  

525. To Agamemnon's son a Serpent gave  
Death's wound, so Poison bring thee to thy grave.   
Orestes son of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra, for killing his mother and Aegystus the Adulterer, as also for murdering Pyrrhus' King of Epirus, was so haunted with Furies, that he could not be expiated till he had sacrificed on the Altar of Diana Taurica, at last by divine justice he was stung to death by a Serpent.  
(1) Furies are the stings and torments of a guilty conscience, which are the rudiments of the pains of hell, therefore some are of opinion that there is no hell but in the conscience. (2) What those Barbarians rashly said of Paul when the viper fastened on his hand, Acts 28. (surely this man is a murderer, whom thought he escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live) may be truly said of Orestes, He escaped the sentence of the judges, and the torments of the Furies, yet the venomous serpent suffered him not to live, but killed him.  

Thy marriage first night be thy last of life,  
So died Eupolis, and his new 'spous'd wife.   
Eupolis an Athenian (there was also a Poet of that name) the first night he lay with his wife Medulla (or Glycerium) they were both struck dead. Of which subject there is an Epigram 3 Antholog. So Quintas Sertullius a Roman, with his wife, were strangled the first night they lay in bed together. Servius on the first of Virgil's Aeneids reports, that Hymenaeus with his wife were quelled the first night of their marriage; therefore at Nuptials for expiation he is invocated as a God.  
(1) If such untimely death happened to man and wife in their lawful marriage bed, what may those impudent wretches that commit fornication and adultery look for? Me thinks they should fear that judgement would surprise them in the very act, as Zimri and Cosbi whom Phineas slew both together, and the execution was allowed by God himself. (2) Dionysius died laughing: Attalus King of the Huns died of Euexia, excess of health; so in the midst of jollity, mirth and pleasure, death may be in the pot.  

As Lycophron that buskin-Poets heart,  
530. So let in thine be stuck a fatal dart.   
Lycophron, one of the seven ancient Poets, that were called Pleyades (the other six were Theocritus, Aratus, Nicander, Apollonius, Philetus, Homerus Junior) wrote an obscure Poem called Alexandria, containing the prophecy of Cassandra, from Hercules to Alexander; at last contending about priority, he was by an adversary slain with an arrow.  
(1) Ambition is torment enough for an Enemy; for it affords as much discontentment in enjoying as want, making men like poisoned Rats, which when they have tasted of their ban●, cannot rest till they drink, and then can much less rest till they die. It is a fools paradise, and wilful unquietness. (2) Ambition is still climbing, but not on jacob's ladder, for the higher it mounts, the farther it is from heaven: yet this sin doth ambitiously insinuat among the best, as Satan among the children of God, Joh 1. It crept into the very hearts of Christ's own disciples, they strove as Lycophron, who should be the greatest.  

Let kinsfolks through a wood thy torn limbs rake,  
As him at Thebes, whose grandsire was a snake.   
Pentheus' grandchild of Cadmus, that was turned into a Snake, despising the religion in Thebes, established by Bacchus the God of wine, notwithstanding the counsel and requests of Cadmus and Athamas, with all speed would alter it; His mother, with his Aunts Ino and Autonöe, all distracted with the fury of Bacchus, supposing Pentheus to be a Boar, transfixed him with Javelins, and tore him in pieces.  
(1) Noah was first after the flood that planted vineyards, and taught men the use of wine; therefore some writ, that of Noachus, he was called Boachus, 
Sandys.  and afterwards by the Heathens Bacchus, by contraction or ignorance of Etymology. (2) Nothing, as King Pentheus well perceived, can more please the vulgar, than Innovation of government and religion: to this they do throng in multitudes. (3) Wise Princes should rather endeavour to pacify then violently oppose a popular fury, which like a torrent breaks all before it, but being let alone exhausteth itself, and is easily suppressed. Reformation is therefore to be wrought by degrees, lest through their too forward zeal they encounter too strong opposition, and ruin themselves and the cause, as this Pentheus did. (3) The blind rage of superstition extinguisheth all affection. Agave murders her own son, and their Aunt their Nephew; Nor have the latter ages been unacquainted with such horrors.  

Or as th' imperious wife of Lycus, thou  
Be dragged by Bulls along a mountain brow.   
Lycus King of Boeotia first married Antiopa, she was got with child by Epopus, and was brought to bed of Zethus and Amphion, whom she fathered upon Jupiter. Dirce second wife to Lycus, caused Antiopa to be bound with chains; by prayer to Jupiter her chains are loosed and she freed, her sons drag Dirce at Bulls tails, the Gods turn her into a fountain.  
(1) Many sin willingly as Antiopa, and lay the blame on God, whereas God tempteth no man to that which he hateth, forbiddeth and punisheth, but every man is tempted of his own lust. (2) Adultery overthrows whole families. Antiopa was the cause of her own divorce and imprisonment, or her husband's death, and the murder of Dirce. (3) In distress, as Antiopa, pray unto God, he will not only lose thy chains and open the prison gate, as to Paul and Sylas, but in the end he will lose the chains of death, and open the prison of the grave.  

535. As th' Harlots to her sister's husband let,  
Thy tongue cut out, fall down before thy feet.   
Tereus' ravished Philomela his wife's sister, and cut out her tongue. Progne revengeth it by killing their son Itys. Tereus is turned into a Lapwing, Philomela into a Nightingale, and Progne to a Swallow; of this read more before.  
(1) Pausanias observeth, that no Nightingale doth sing, nor Swallow build in Thracia, as hating the country of Tereus. But where Swallows build the Archietecture of their nest is admirable, and to rob it or pull it down was among some people held not only unfortunate, but sacrilegious. When cold weather comes, and Flies which are their chiefest food be gone, they creep into the clefts of rocks, or sink to the bottom of a water. Mr Burton and Mr Sandys do report, that it is not extraordinary to draw Swallows out of some ponds with the fish, which do seem dead, but being put in a stove, or to the fire, they revive and take them to their wing.  

As Blesus that knew Myrrah dulled to a tree,  
So childless sound mayst thou in all parts be.   
Blesus it seems first knew the virtue of the Myrrh tree, for he was childless. And Dioscorides saith, that Myrrh openeth the Matrix, and helpeth childbirth, and why not child-begetting? Ovid here wisheth Ibis, that though he should change many climates, and many wives, yet he should still be childless. Which doubtless is an heavy curse and reproach to man, as Barrenness among the Jews was to a woman: For he heapeth up riches and cannot tell who shall gather them. See more of Myrrah before.  
(1) Myrrah is feigned to be turned into a tree, because after that horrid fact in the fruition of her own father's bed, she ever after hide herself, and though unsensibly, she shed bitter tears for her transgression, signified by the gum distilled from that tree. (2) This tree doth prosper the better when the root is boared, and distils most juice in blustering winds: So an upright settled mind remains , and I bears most fruits of virtue in the storms of envy and affliction, appearing more comfortable and glorious, being oppressed. Virescit vulnere virtus.  

Let busy Bees fix in thine eyes their stings,  
540. Such creatures to Achaeus did like things.   
Achaeus devising a Poem in his garden, was stung in the eyes with bees, and so made blind.  
(1) Thus envious enemies of the Gospel of peace, as busy bees (or rather wasps) put pricks in our eyes to blind us, that we might not see the truth. But behold and taste that honey-like comfort of the sweet singer of Israel; They came about me like bees, yet they are extinct, as the fire among the thorns, for in the name of the Lord will I destroy them. Nay they will destroy themselves; As wheresoever a be stings, she leaves her sting behind, and then turns a buzzing idle drone, despicable to all ingenious, industrious bees.  

Fixed to a rock, gnawed be thy bowels, as  
He to whom Pyrrha brother's daughter was.   
Prometheus, brother to Epimetheus, that was father of Pyrrha, for his bringing fire out of heaven unto earth, was bound on the hill Caucasus, where an Eagle fed upon his heart.  
(1) Menander the Greek Poet thinks that Prometheus was thus tormented, not because he brought fire from heaven, but because he bought woman (which is worse) into the earth. (2) Our daily labours be refreshed by sleep at night, as Prometheus' heart. Cura cor urit.  

Renew the pattern of Thyestes meat,  
Thee like Harpagus son thy father eat.   
Harpagus, because he killed not Cyrus, as his grand father King Astyages had commanded him, was invited by the King to a feast, where Harpagus own son was the chiefest dish, being killed, and his limbs sod and roast. Read this history at large in Justin. l. 1. So was Thyestes served by his brother Atreus. Good Authors do relate this of Harpalice, who being forced by her father Clymenus, when she was delivered, killed the child, and made it for her father's table. Of Thyestes read before.  
(1) Maugre all the bloody malice, and preventing plots of Astyages, Cyrus his grandchild and right heir is preserved, and proves the best of all the Kings that ever ruled the Medes and Persians. The Prophet Esay calls him the servant of God; it was he that caused the Temple of Jerusalem to be re-edified. Thus Moses was saved from drowning. Paul from killing If God be with us, who can be against us?  

545. Be hacked in pieces by the sword of foes,  
So was Mamerthes, as the story goes.   
Mamerthes, brother of Sisapon, King of Corinth, desiring to be King, killed the young Prince, for which bloody ambitious fact, Sisapon caused him to be torn in pieces. Some copies of this part of Ovid, for Mamerthes read Nycernus and Mycernus.  
(1) See in Mamerthes the bloody means and the end of ambition. How more noble was that conscientious Heathen Lycurgus, though Eunomus, his brother, the king of Sparta was dead, himself by election in his place, solicited by the Queen to marry with her, yet when he perceived that she was with child by the King, he put her off with sweet delays until the birth; when she was delivered, he presented the young Prince unto the Nobles, saying, This is your King, not I So by common consent the child was, named Charilaus, that is, the grace, honour or love of the people. Hence it is thought came the renowned name of Carolus. This is the heir, said the Jews, come let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours; but by killing Christ, they like the dog in the fable, lost both what they had and what they hoped for.  

As Syracuse 's Poet be thou roped,  
So let the passage of thy breath be stopped.   
Theocritus the worthiest of all the pastoral Poets, whom Virgil doth imitate, lived at Syracuse, where for railing against King Hiero, he was brought to the gallows, and fixed in a halter; in this posture, being asked if he would recant and forbear, he railed the more; so by the King's command, though he were brought thither in jest, he was hanged at last in earnest.  
(1) Poetical licence hath been allowed for quantity of Syllables, not for rash liberty of speech against persons of quality and power. Saint Judas that forbids to have any persons in admiration, forbids also to despise the powers, or speak evil of dignities. Nero the worst of Emperors ruled, when Saint Paul exhorted every soul to be subject to the higher powers. Therefore thou shalt not revile the governor of God's people, though he were a Jeroboam; for we must obey him for conscience sake. Michael the Archangel, one of the best creatures, in a very good cause, against the worst enemy of us all, the very Devil, would use no railing words, but said, The Lord rebuke thee, Jud. 9  

Thy skin plucked off, let naked flesh appear,  
500 Like his whose name a Phrygian brook doth bear.   
Marsyas, a man very skilful in wind-instruments, called a Satire, for his rude and lascivious composures, presumed to challenge Apollo with his harp; being overcome, he had his skin stripped over his ears. The rural deplore their pipers death, and raise a river of his own name with their tears. The Phrygians did believe that the stream sprung from his blood. See more before.  
(1) Marsyas is feigned to have the tail of a Swine, because audacious attempts have shameful ends: Curtius reports, that the river Marsyas falls from the top of a Mountain on subjacent rocks, with a mighty murmur, and passing thence, glides on in a quiet current: feigned a piper to have his skin stripped off, and dissolved into water, because murmur of water renders a kind of harmony; the river suddenly changed by his abated violence, as if uncased of his skin, assuming another colour, and becoming more Chrystallin. (2) Marsyas the Inventor of wind instruments may resemble ambition and vainglory, which delights in shouts and loud applauses, but virtue and wisdom have a sweeter touch, though they make not so great a noise in popular opinion.  

Look on Medusa's face that turns to stone  
Men, and did many Cipheus kill alone.   
Medusa, daughter of Phorcus, transformed all that looked upon her into Marble. Perseus' furnished with the shield of Pallas, and falchion of Mercury, having got from the Graeae the other two Gorgon's, the one eye which they both used in common, cuts off Medusa's head, yet looks not on her, but only sees her deformity, in the shield of Pallas.  
(1) We are taught by this fable, that no great action should be taken in hand without the advice of Pallas, that is, wisdom. (2) Perseus attempts her alone, that of all the rest was mortal. So we should pursue such designs that are feisible, not vast and endless. He striking, looks on the shield of Pallas; so must we by providence prevent instant dangers. (3) Perseus may be the reasonable soul, the Graeae knowledge and wisdom, got by old experience, without whose eye or conduction, Medusa, Lust, and the enchantment of bodily beauty stupifies our senses, making us unuseful, and converts us as it were into stone. (4) Perseus killed Medusa; so Reason corporal pleasure: he looks not on her but only in the shield of Pallas (as we may safely look upon the Eclipse of the Sun in water) It is not safe to behold what our hearts are prone to consent to. Therefore Job wisely made a covenant with his eyes. Perseus with the sight of Medusa's head, killed Cypheus' and all his mates, that came to take from him his new married wife Andromeda.  

The bite of Potnia Mares with Glaucus feel,  
Into the Sea with th'other Glaucus reel.   
1. Glaucus' a man of Potnia, hindered his Mares from the use of Horses; they in their madness tore him to pieces.  
(1) Naturam expellas furcâ licèt, usque recurret. Cross nature with a fork, 'twill have recourse. Art and Education may correct and qualify nature, not confound and nullify it. (2) Custom is another nature. When ancient liberties and accustomed immunities are denied and debarred; the brutish multitude will use their utmost force and violence against the infringer. Naturae sequitur semina quodque suae.  
2. Glaucus, a second of that name, a man of Boeotia, an excellent swimmer, and a fisher, coming with a burden of fish to the city Anthedon, he sat on the grass to rest, and laid his fish by him, seeing one of the fishes, by biting of an herb revive, he eaten of the same herb, and leapt into the sea, and was made a sea-God.  
(1) There is none of so low and mean condition, whom extraordinary eminency in commendable arts and faculties cannot make immortal. Barbarossa a fisherman's son made King of Tunis. Massinello a fisherman, in few years past, was, though for no long time, commander of all Naples. Columbus by his glorious discoveries more justly deserved a place for his ship among the Southern Constellations, than ever the Argonauts by their so much honoured Argo. Peter and James and John, of fishermen were called to be Apostles here, and Saints in Heaven.  

555. Let Gnossian honey choke thy soul, as his  
Whose name like those two lastly mentioned is.   
Glaucus' a third of that name, son of Mino● and Pasiphäe, playing with a tennis-ball, fell into a barrel of honey, and there died. Polyidus a Physician, was shut up with the dead body in a room, that he might restore him to life: Seeing a Serpent coming towards the body, he provoked him on purpose to be killed by him, but by chance he killed the Serpent: Another Serpent comes to the dead Serpent, and with an herb revives it; Polyidus with the same herb restores to life the dead body of young Glaucus.  
(1) If by playing with the unconstant ball of the world we are drowned in mellifluous pleasures, whereby our souls are dead in sins and trespasses: none but Polyidus, our knowing Physician, Christ, by the sovereign herb of grace can revive us to evarlasting life.  

Or guilty drink with trembling hand that cup  
Which Socrates undauntedly sucked up.   
Socrates, though by the Oracle of Apollo he was accounted the wisest, and by the vote of all men the honestest, yet by three envious neighbours Anytus, Lycon, and Melytus, being falsely accused, he was by the Judges condemned: so drunk to his enemy Anytus a cup of poison wherewith he died.  
(1) There are sons of Belial, knights of the post, knaves that be-lie-all by false accusation, will soon hang one true honest man. And what will not malice and envy act, chief being backed with power? rather than not see his neighbours two eyes out, the envious man will gladly pluck out one of his own. Those persecuting prosecutors of Socrates, some were banished, someslain. Pilat though he knew that the Jews had delivered Jesus only for envy, yet condemned him; He having drank of gall and vinegar, a health to his enemies, died upon the Cross; but the Traitor suffered a more dishonourable death.  

If thou dost love, the steps of Haemon tread,  
560. As Macareus, do thou thy sister wed.   
Haemon married his own sister Rhodope, therefore the Gods revenging so foul a fact, turned them both into mountains.  
(1) Peruse the histories of all the ancient authors, and you will scarce find one among an hundred of that unlucky brood, sprung from incestuous parents, but was monstrously inhuman and bloody: and the end of the parents ominous. Haemon and Rhodope were turned into mountains: In mountains and hills brute beasts do promiscuously couple without distinction or relation of brother, sister, dam or sire; I hope this beastly heathenish vice is not so much as named among Christians, therefore it shall not defile my pen, nor offend my reader's eyes or ears, for me.  
Concerning Macareus and Canace read before.  

See thou as when the fire burned all things down,  
What Hector's son did from his father's town.   
How Ulysses cast down Astyanax son of Hector from the walls of Troy, read before.  

Perish like him whose grandsire was his sire,  
His sister, mother, by incestuous fire.   
Adonis, begotten by Cynaras on his own daughter Myrrah, was slain by a bore, whose death Venus lamented with bitter tears, and converted him into a flower, which some call Anemony.  
(1) Men of excellent beauties have been subject to miserable destinies. Rarò forma viris impunita fuit. (2) This lamentation for Adonis is mentioned under the name Tammuz, which Jerom takes for Adonis; but Tremelius, for Osiris, Ezech. 8. Allegorically both are one. Now Adonis was no other than the Sun, adored under that name by the Phoenicians, 
Sandys.  as Venus by the name Astarten: for the Naturalists call the upper Hemisphere of the earth which we inhabit, Venus, & the lower part Proserpina: Venus wept when Adonis was dead; so when the Sun enters into the six Winter-signs of the Zodiac, the widowed earth weeps, overflowed with rain. Adonis in the Hebrew signifieth Lord, 
[〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉]  and the Sun is Lord of all the Planets. Adonis was killed by a bore; so the savage horrid winter delighting in mire and cold, like a bore, unfit for Venus, doth as it were kill the Sun, diminishing his heat and lustre. Thus not only the factious little foxes of schism do pluck off her grapes, but the wild bore of Heresy endeavours to root up and kill the vineyard, the Church of Christ.  

565. Let such a kind of dart in thy bones stick,  
As Icarus son-in-law to death did prick.   
Ulysses, husband of Penelope, who was Icarus daughter, was slain by a dart thrown unawares from the hand of his own son Telegonus, near his Palace in Ithaca, after that he had returned safe from Troy.  
(1) No General, though so wise, valiant and triumphant as Ulysses, having passed the pikes, pistols and swords of the enemy, can scape the dart of the last enemy, which is death; and that if providence so permit, by the hand of one that is most near & dear. Alexander that conquered all the world, was killed by a cup of wine from his own Butler's hand. (2) The time, manner and place of death is as much uncertain as death itself is certain. Let us therefore, with the Poet, think everyday the last; let us with Job, expect every hour, till our change come; let us still pray with the Church; From sudden death good Lord deliver us.  

Like Anaxarchus be in mortar pound,  
Thy scattered bones like common grain resound.   
Anaxarchus, a Philosopher of Abdera, being condemned by Nicocrean, Tyrant of Cyprus, to be pound with iron pestles in a mortar, suffered that torment so undauntedly, that he often repeated this memorable speech, Pound Tyrant, pound Anaxarchus his windbag, thou poundest not Anaxarchus. Being threatened that his tongue should be cut out, he bitten it off in pieces, and spit it in the Tyrant's face.  
(1) I do confess that this Heathen was an unparalleled piece of Heroic valour, but it merits the title of an effect of revengeful active malice, rather than a testimony of patiented passive martyrdom, in comparison of Christians. Hear the language of Saint Laurence, who being laid naked on a burning gridiron, is reported to have said thus; Tyrant, turn the other side, this is broiled enough. Those glorious Martyrs in Queen Mary's fierce persecution, kissed the flame, and clipped the stake, being fully assured that upon the wheels of faith, in that fiery chariot with Elijah, they should be carried into heaven.  

And as the prattler off his horse fell dumb,  
570. The passage of thy throat choke with thy thumb.   
Agenor, a prattler, not sparing Jupiter himself in his reviling talk, fell off his horse and choked himself with his own thumb.  
(1) Nature itself hath bound the tongue to the good behaviour, and shut it within the outward prison of the lips, and the inward of the teeth, yet the unruly member is always apt to break out: But for so little a creature to fly out against Jupiter her Creator, deserves death, not only sudden, but eternal.  

Like Psamate's father, thee let Phoebus throw  
To deepest hell; he used his daughter so.   
Orchamus' King of Babylon, perceiving that his daughter Leucothone had lain with Apollo, buried her alive. Apollo not able to revive her, sprinkled Nectar upon her grave, whence a Frankincense tree ascended; and used her father as he had used his daughter.  
(1) See here the disposition of a cruel father; though the offence of a child be great, the punishment of a father should be gentle. Pro peccato magno paululum supplicii satis est patri. It is unnatural for a man to be cruel, 
Terence.  whose name should mind him of pity; Homo ab humanitate: but for a father to be cruel, is hard and barbarous.  
(2) Frankincense serves for many uses in Physic, whereof Apollo is the God. It grows in Sabaea, as naturally loving heat; therefore Apollo and Leucothone are feigned reciprocal lovers. (2) Frankincense smells not sweet, unless it be melted by the Sun or fire: so prayers in themselves have no savour, unless inflamed with zeal and devotion, expressed in the Ceremonial Law, by the Censer.  

Such monster spoil Thine, as Chroraebus killed,  
That ease unto poor Grecians did yield.   
Linus begot by Apollo upon Psamathe, daughter of Crotopus King of Argives, was killed by his grandfathers dog: In revenge whereof, Apollo sent a monster to plague the Country called Paena, that would pull the Infants from the mother's breast, and kill them before their faces: This monster was slain by Choraebus.  
(1) A trivial saying there is, that Wine, Women and Dogs be the occasions of most part of mischiefs. (2) For a personal offence, though suffered, not acted, comes a National punishment, as here for Crotopus dogs. This Monster may be some filthy catching disease, as the small Pox, that plucks away and destroyeth Infants. Choraebus' the skilful Physician Conquers and kills it.  

575. As Aethra's Nephew slain by Venus' wrath,  
Let scared horses drag thee unto death.   
Hippolytus, son of Theseus by Antiope, who had denied Venus a courtesy, upon false accusation of his stepmother Phaedra, that he should tempt her chastity, was by his credulous father abjured, and cursed to death: which Neptune accomplished; for the horses of Hippolytus, affrighted with a sea calf, threw him down and dragged him to pieces on the ●ock. Aesculapius restores him to life, and changeth his ominous name Hippolytus, to Virbius, signifying twice a Man.  
(1) Curses of parents fall heavy upon children, though undeserved. (2) Rash belief is the author of much mischief, and unsuspended wrath of too late repentance: The chaste youth suffers for another's inchastity; but virtue, though for a time afflicted, cannot be finally suppressed. (3) This Virbius by some is thought to be a cunning impostor, suborned by the Priests of Diana Aricina, to draw a greater concourse to that grove, that their gain may increase by more frequent devotion. And have not others in later days used such incredible forgeries, to serve their own turn?  

One host for his great wealth his guest did slay;  
For thy small wealth thy host make thee away.   
Polymnestor, to enjoy the gold sent by King Priamus to him, with his son Polydorus, killed the young Prince his pupil. Read more before.  
(1) The wisest Creator hath placed the basest part of his creatures as gold and silver under our feet, the noblest over our heads, on purpose that we should neglect and scorn the one, admire and love the other; yet we by a simple conversion, or Hysteron Proteron, embrace the worst, and slight the best, trampling under foot affinity, consanguinity, fidelity, yea Christianity, and humanity itself, for filthy lucre's sake, losing the crown of glory to gain a crown in gold. 
Virgil.  Quid non mortalia pectora cogis, Auri sacra fames?  

With Damasicthon were six brothers slain,  
580. So of thy kin let none alive remain.   
Amphion King of Thebes, had by Niobe seven daughters, and seven sons, whose names were Ismenus, Siphus, Phedinus, Tantalus, Alphenor, Damasicthon, and Ilioneus. The daughters were slain by Diana, and the sons by Apollo's arrows, because Niobe presumed to prefer herself before Latona, and Niobe was turned into a Marble.  
(1) Wealth and honour engender pride in the hearts of Mortals, whence proceeds the contempt of God and man, and insolent forgetfulness of humane instability. Thus from the height of glory, by divine vengeance they are made spectacles of calamity, and subject to their pity, whom they formerly despised; so wanting valour to support, and virtue to make use of afflictions, with immoderate sorrow they are besotted and stupefied like stones. (2) A raging plague in Boeotia swept away the children of Niobe, with other people, which is caused by extreme heat, and contagious vapours, signified by Apollo's arrows, and Diana. Niobe is said to be turned into a stone, because excessive sorrow made her senseless.  

Senec.  Curae leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent.  

The Harper to his children joined his death,  
So be thou justly weary of thy breath.   
Amphion, husband of Niobe, son of Jupiter and Antiopa, was brought up among shepherds, and taught Music by Mercury; he built the walls of Thebes with stones, drawn thither by playing on his instrument; Afterwards outbraving Apollo and Diana, he was killed.  
(1) Amphion the Musician, is son of Jupiter, because that Music is from God: Or Jupiter is the air, because as Jupiter gave life to Amphion, so doth air unto Music: Amphion was bred among shepherds; for these people leading an idle life, were invited to invent Music, by singing of birds, whistling of winds, and running of waters; he was taught by Mercu●y, to show that Eloquence and Music have equal power upon the affections: Eloquence is a musical speech, and Music a speechless Eloquence. He built Thebes by Music, that is, Eloquence; by it rude people are drawn to Religion, Policy and Civility. He outbraving Apollo and Diana, the Sun and the Moon, shows that Music doth as much affect the soul by the Ear, as light doth the Eye. (2) Christ, the heavenly Amphion, by the harmony of his word, hath made us being dead and scattered, to become living stones toward th● building of his Church: Amphion civilised senseless creatures, but could not charm his own wife's pride: Christ could not cure the pride of the Jews whom he had married to himself. He piped to them in the music of the Gospel, but they would not dance unto it by obedience.  

Like Pelops sister, hardened stone become,  
Or Battus- like, whose tongue did make him dumb.   
Niobe sister of Pelops, was turned into Marble. Battus a shepherd, was turned into a Touchstone by Mercury; because when Mercury had stolen from Apollo some of the  of Admetus, he gave Battus a Cow to conceal the business, which he vowed to do; but Mercury having changed his habit, promising Battus a cow and a bull, he revealed to him where the  were, therefore he was so punished.  
(1) Mercury it seems was a very early thief, for Homer reports that he stole those  the first day he was born. Not long after he stole Apollo's arrows, Vulcan's tools, Venus' girdle, Jove's sceptre, when he was yet a child; nay he had stole his lightning too, but that he was afraid to burn his fingers. (2) This fiction showeth that Eloquence hath a bewitching power to deceive; and that those in whose Horoscope Mercury doth predominate, are crafty and thievish, that hot and dry Planet having such variety of motions. (3) In Battus see the just reward of Covetousness and Perjury. (4) Perhaps Ovid here meant and intended the foolish Poet Battus, that redounded in vain and tedious repetitions, like this shepherd; hence such kind of speech is called Battologia.  

585. If Queit thou cast into the open air,  
Let Queit thee kill, like Hyacinth the fair.   
Hyacinthus was a very beautiful youth, with whom Apollo and Zephyrus were at once in love. Zephyrus in revenge that the youth inclined to Apollo more than to him, while he was playing at Queits with Apollo, by a sudden blast turned the Queit upon his head, and killed him. Apollo grieved at this loss, was comforted by Tellus, which drank up his blood, and turned it to a flower of his own name: Some call it Crow-toes.  
(1) Flowers are begot by Moisture and Heat, cherished by the Sun. (2) Beauty is like a flower, soon killed by a sharp blast, as Hyacinthus was. Zephyrus quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, hath its name from bringing life, yet killed this youth; the same Wind that doth cherish animals and vegetables, doth sometimes blast and destroy, according to the quality assumed from the earth and water, 
Sandys.  from whence they are exhaled. (3) The Hyacinth expresseth Apollo's grief, Ai, Ai, an afflicted Ingemination charactered in the leaves, into which he prophesied that Ajax should be converted, as Ai the two first letters of his name did present, whereof Virgil enigmatically.  

Dic quibus in terris incripti nomina regum  
Nascuntur flores; & Phyllida solus habebis.   

Tell me where grow the flowers whose leaves enshrine  
The names of Kings; and Phillis shall be thine.   
(4) The Poets that shadowed under fables, Philosophical and Theological Instructions, by the love of Gods unto Boys, do express the graciousness of simplicity and innocency; and like little children, or not at all, we must enter into celestial habitations.  

If thou with nimble arms shalt water move,  
Let every stream worse than Abydus prove.   
Leander a famous youth of Abydus, being in love with Hero, a fair maid of Sestus, upon the opposite shore, used to swim over to her by night, many times with good success, but one night a storm arose and drowned him.  
(1) Behold in Leander the violence of Love, which all the water in the sea could scarcely quench, nor roaring waves, nor mingling sea with heaven could terrify. In Hero see the nature of many women, she was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; a maiden by day, a wife by night. Many seem modest and chaste by day, which may be notorious whores by night; they may delude the eyes of the world, but not his eyes to whom the night is as clear as the day. Fulgentius observeth that Hero signifieth love, from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and Leander the dissolution of manhood, from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: for Love causeth men to undergo any danger, though by night, and makes them lose and dissolute.  

As the Comedian perished in a brook,  
590. So let thy soul the Stygian water choke.   
Menander the Comic Poet of Athens, who (as Suidas doth report) wrote eighty Comedies in Greek, swimming in a shallow water was drowned; So was Terence, his imitator, drowned in the sea.  
(1) No soldier with his sharpest weapon, could ever yet repel the foil of death; no Physician with his strongest antidotes prevent it; no Orator with the most insinuating rhetoric persuade it; no Poet with the most Nectarian verses charm it to a pardon, or reprieve: yet though the body of Menander and others be drowned, their fame will never sink in the lake of oblivion, but live as long as rivers run into the sea. This perpetual honour, due unto deserving Poets, was emblemized by their Bays, which grows still green, and by their God Apollo's face, and hair still young.  

Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori. 
Hor. Od.    

When shipwrecked thou shalt 'scape the boisterous main,  
Safely arrived, thou on the land be slain.   
Palinurus Pilot of Aenaeas his ship, being in a deep heavy sleep, fell into the sea, where being for three days tossed, on the fourth he swum to the shore of Veliae; where the inhabitants in hope of pillage, killed him, and having rob him, threw him into the sea again.  
(1) Sleep could never seize upon great Jupiter as it did upon Palinurus. Princes and governor's should not slumber in supine negligence; for so they may drop into an Ocean of danger, and be taken napping. Alectrion, which signifies a Cock, was once a youth, beloved of Mars, and because he being put to watch while Mars▪ lay with Venus, fell asleep, he was converted into that Fowl, with a crest on his head, representing his Helmet; being mindful of that former neglect, he doth often crow every night. The Swisses going to war, carry with them a Cock, to mind them both of Vigilancy and courage. (2) Souls security is Satan's opportunity: While the Crocodile sleeps with open mouth, the Indian Rat shoots himself into his belly, and gnaws his guts asunder. While the husbandman slept, the envious man sowed tares. Mischief enters at the open gates of security, but watchful providence preventeth imminent danger. Watch therefore and pray, lest ye enter into temptation, or temptation into you.  

Diana's guard the Tragic Poet slew,  
So be thou torn by a watchful dogged crew.   
Euripides that famous Greek Tragic Poet, was in great honour with Archeläus King of Macedonia, he returning one night from supper from a King's palace, the Dogs that kept Diana's Temple, put on by his enemy Lysimachus the King's servant, tore him in pieces, but afterwards that currish Courtier killed himself. The Grecians and Macedonians strove who should enjoy the bones of Euripides.  
(1) Poets in former ages have been the greatest favourites of the greatest Kings and Emperors, as Virgil, Horace, and Ovid to Augustus, and Euripides to Archeläus; And why not now? Sint Mecaenates, non deerunt, Flacce, Marones'. Yet a Welsh Bard hath been in a happier and safer condition, in a mountain-cottage, with whey and oaten cake, than the Greek Poet in a mighty Court, with sweet meat and sour sauce. But the enemies of Learning, as Lysimachus, have no great cause to boast, in the end Lysimachus laid dogged hands upon himself, and what better end can such envious puppies expect, that wrong ingenious Scholars?  

595. On the Trinacrian Giants face leap thou,  
Where the Sicilian Aetna flames doth spew.   
Empedocles a Philosopher, and a Poet of Agrigentum, a city in Sicilia, which is called Trinacria, from the three Promontories near adjacent, secretly forsaking his companions, in the night leapt into the burning mouth of the hill Aetna, that he might be accounted among men an immortal God, but his Iron pantofles cast up by the flame, shown what was become of their Master. Under Aetna was Typhoeus buried.  
(1) It is a most desperate devilish madness to leap really into the mouth of Hell, in a fond imaginary hope to be called immortal in the mouth of poor credulous mortals. But these Impostors have some odd slip or other, that betrays their juggling; as Empedocles shoes discovered him. The Egyptian Sorcerers, Exod. 8. could imitate Moses in the hardest miracles, but failed in the lowest, they could not make Lice. The Swan is comely white in body, but his feet are ugly black. Hypocritical professors appear like Angels of light, yet the feet of their souls run not the narrow milky way of God's Commandments, but the broad black way of the prince of darkness; for they are not sound shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace.  

Thinking thee Orpheus, let the wives of Thrace,  
With mad nails tear thy limbs place after place.   
Orpheus' having lost his wife Eurydice, determined to marry no other, but lived a single life, and dissuaded others from marriage, at last he fell to the devilish use of boys, and therefore the wives of Thrace by scratching killed him.  
(1) A shipwrecked mariner being once arrived home with his tattered vessel, hangs up his tackle in Neptune's Temple, and fears to adventure to sea again; I could not blame perplexed Socrates, had he been so happy as to have buried his cursed wise Xantippe, if he had vowed perpetual abstinence. And were I a widower, should I marry a worse wife than the former, I should grieve at her life; if as good, I should grieve at her death. Yet better it is (saith the Apostle) to marry then to burn. Nay, in such an extreme, the Devil with his fiery darts may kindle an obstinate Votary, as he did Orpheus, with those filthy men, Rom. 1. to leave the natural use of women, and burn in lust of one towards another.  

600. Althaea 's son was burned by flames not nigh,  
So by a fatal brand live thou, and die.   
Meleager son of Oeneus, King of Calidonia, by Althaea, was to live as long as the stick which the Fates gave his mother, should last. Diana being angry that Oeneus offered not sacrifice unto her, sent a Boar to devour the Country: Meleager accompanied with his Uncle's Plexippus and Toxus, and fair Atalanta, killed the Boar, and presented the head unto the Lady, which his Uncles took from her, and were therefore both slain by Meleager. In revenge of her brother's blood, his mother cast the fatal stick into the fire, which being burnt out, Meleager died.  
(1) No evil happens to a man but it proceeds either from omission of divine worship, or actual impiety, 
Sandys.  and though it seems to proceed from natural causes, as concealed from our understanding; it is inflicted by supreme appointment. (2) Dishonour to a mistress is an injury to the Lover implacable and immortal, as Atalanta's to Meleager: But which the brand in the fire his life was extinguished. This is thought to have been effected by witchcraft, his image being carved upon the brand. Pliny speaketh of waxed Images made by Magicians. And Bucanan relates that Duff, the eig●teenth King of Scotland, p●ned away with perpetual sweat; but when a witch that was ●o●●d roasting the King's Image in wax at a ●oft fire, was taken and executed, and the Image broken, the King recovered in a moment. From the crafts and assaults of the Devil, good Lord deliver us.  

Or as the Phasian chaplet burned the spouse,  
With her, her father, and her father's house.   
Medea of Colchos (by which place the river Phasis runneth) drawn through the air by her Dragons, arrived at Corinth, where her husband Jason was married to Creusa daughter of King C●eon, whence being condemned to banishment, she obtained a day's respite; in the interim, she sends a crown and robe to Creusa, which being put on, set her on fire, with her father that came to rescue her, and at last the whole house.  
(1) All creatures and plants do increase to a period, and then do incline and decay, except the Crocodile, 
Dal. Aph.  which grows bigger and bigger to her death. All perturbations of mind have their intentions and remissions, except malicious revenge, chief of alienated love; the longer it lasteth, the stronger it waxeth, as we may see by Medea. (2) That wherewith she anointed the garment sent to Creusa, is by Plutarch called Naptha, which is a slimy chalk engendered among the rocks in Parthia; between this chalk and the fire is so great sympathy, that it draws the fire unto it, as the loadstone doth iron, and is incensed with the natural heat of the body, enraged rather then subdued by water. Alexander for sport sake, caused his boys garment to be anointed with it, which being set on fire, burned him to death, though all means possible was used to quench it, and preserve the youth.  

As blood like poison Hercules limbs did fill,  
So let rank poison all thy vitals kill.   
Hercules' swom over the river Evenus, and trusted the half-horse Nessus, to carry over his wife Dejanira, but the perfidious Centaur attempting mean time on the bank to ravish her, was prevented by a mortal wound from Hercules' arrow; Dying Nessus persuaded her to give Hercules a garment dipped in his blood, saying it would revive her husband's decayed affection; Hercules wearing it, broils with extreme heat, and miserably dies.  
(1) Nessus was one of those that fled from the battle between the Centaurs & the Lapithits, whom Hercules helped to subdue, yet contrary to humane policy, Hercules gives credit to a reconciled enemy. But credulity proceeds from a man's own Integrity, a vice more honest than safe. Thus Dejanira, like a woman that is either too affectionate, or too jealous, accepts the gift, not considering that it came from an enemy, which ever tends to mischief. More circumspect was the Trojan, Timeo Danäos & dona ferentes. The Greeks though bringing gifts I fear. Thus noble and worthy Heroes have been ruined by too much confidence in perfidious cowards.  

605. And as his heir revenged Pentheus' son  
Lycurgus, with like dart be thou undone.   
Lycurgus' son of Pentheus, that was son of Dryas, because he cut down the vines in Thracia, was infuriated by Bacchus' Priests, and so cut his own shins, Buthes (or Bethes) son of Lycurgus, in his father's revenge, slew them.  
(1) It is too much like Bacchus' Priests to be drunk alone, but to provoke others, doth aggravate the offence. Thus persons sick of the plague take delight to infect others. And as it was lawful in former times to kill a pestilent person, that presumed to go abroad upon that design; so was it natural in Butes, the son, to destroy the pestiferous Priests that did intoxicate his father to his ruin.  

As Milo stout, to cleave an Oak assay,  
But fail to pluck thy fastened hand away.   
Milo of Crotonia, a man of incomparable strength, carried an Ox on his back over the Olympian stage in one breath, than knocked him in the head with his fist, and in one day eat him every bit; being too confident of his strength, he took upon him to pluck out the wedges that the clevers had stuck fast in an oak, which he did perform, but the gaping oak suddenly returned to its place, and held his hands so fast that he could not pluck them out, so he became a prey to the ravenous wolves.  
(1) As it is a sorry horse that will not carry his own provender; so that man is worse than a beast that will in one day put so much in his belly as he can carry on his back; such an one is fit to be h●nged then kept, for he robs many an honest man of his v●ctuals. (2) Attempt nothing but what may be accomplished with dexterity and honour. He is neither a wise nor a valiant soldier that desperately adventures upon a design before he is sure of a safe retreat, otherwise he may become a prey to his wolf-like enemy.  

Be thou as Icarus, by thy own gift harmed,  
610. A drunken rabble fall upon thee armed;  
As his kind daughter for her father's death,  
Knit to thy throat a cord, and stop thy breath.   
Icarius (not Icarus) son of Oebalus, and father of E●igon●, was a guest to Bacchus, who gave him a Borachio of wine, and bade him communicate it to others. He gave it to certain shepherds in his return to Attica, who immoderately drinking thereof, fell on the earth, and imagining that Icarius had poisoned them, with their staves they killed him. His Dog Nerea, by running before and howling, shown Erigone the place where her father lay unburied, who after she had interred him, hanged herself; but Jupiter changed them both into a constellation, calling Erigone, Virgo, one of the six Northern signs, and her father Boötes; between whose legs shines the eminent Arcturus, which in revenge of his murder, riseth in tempests. But Icarius his Dog, that died at his hanging Mistress feet, was called Astrition, by us the Dog star; his malignancy, as they feign, proceeding from the former occasion, causing burning fevers, frenzies, and other infections, whose reign determines with the rising of Arcturus, the season then suffering an alteration.  
(1) Wine comforts the heart, strengthens the body, cherisheth the spirits, and helps the stomach, if used with moderation: there is no such poison as wine, nor the cause of more mischief, both in the body Politic and Natural. (2) See in Erigone the preposterous passion of a Woman. We should be patiented at the loss of friends, not like those that be void of hope. (3) The fidelity and thankfulness of this Dog Nerea, and many other I have read of, may condemn the treachery and ingratitude from man to man. Icarius was slain for his own courtesies. And who is worse rewarded than he that doth most good to the Commonwealth?  

Be famished, shut up in a room, as he,  
To whom his mother did his pain decree.   
Euristhenes after an overthrow at war, returning home, was so hated among the people, that his own mother shut him up in a chamber, and there famished him to death. Alciat, and many others do interpret this of Pausanias, Captain of the Lacedæmonians, who for treason was shut up in the Temple of Minerva by the Edict of the Ephori, and his own mother put the first stone to fasten the door.  
(1) The planks of ancient ships were made of Pinetree, because heavy weight caused them not to bend down, but to rise upwards; such is the undaunted heart of a magnanimous soldier; therefore victorious Generals riding home in triumph, wore a Pine branch in their Helmets, and were honoured of all men, alive and dead. But a timorous Coward not only dishonours himself & his Country, but is rendered odious even to his own ingenuous parents that begat him. (2) Let us fight the good fight of faith, and resist to blood: so shall we be more than conquerors, and receive the Crown of Glory.  

615. Minerva's Temple do thou so annoy,  
As he that turned his course away from Troy.   
Ajax Oileus coming out of his way, in his return from Toy, deflowered Cassandra in the Temple of Pallas, so Jupiter killed him with a thunderbolt.  
(1) Heathen Gods suffered not the profaners of their Idolatrous Temples to escape unpunished; how much less will our true and jealous God the polluters of that Sanctuary, wherein his Name is called upon▪ Christ whipped out of the Jewish material Temple the profaners of it, so let us whip sin out of our spiritual temple, the soul. Cast back an eye on some foregoing ages, and you will find that sacrilegious persons did not long enjoy themselves. Vix gaudet tertius haeres.  

With Nauplias suffer death for no desert,  
And not escape it, though thou guiltless art.   
Palamedes son of Nauplus, King of Eubaea, because he discovered Ulysses, and forced him to come with other Grecians to the siege of Troy, was ever envied by him; for revenge Ulysses in the leaguer caused a sum of gold to be hid in the Tent of Palamedes, and counterfeited Letters from Priamus' King of Troy, to Palamedes, containing thanks for betraying the Grecians at his request, intimating that he had sent him so much gold for his pains and care: Hereupon Palamedes is accused of treason by Ulysses, the gold is found in his Tent, he is condemned and stoned.  
(1) Poison is of such a force that it corrupteth both blood and spirit, besieging, seizing and infecting the heart with its venomous contagion, quite altering the complexion and disposition of the man that drinks it: So the pestiferous desire of revenge, though it seizeth on a prudent mind, and a mild, and a mansuete disposition, it is of such a forcible operation, that it not only altereth man's nature, but maketh men unnatural; that truth is plainly proved by the example of Ulysses. (2) It is the only valour in a Christian to remit an injury, and it is right noble, that we might hurt, and will not. 
B. Hall.  Let us so remit wrongs, that we encourage not others to offer them, and so retain them, that we induce not God to retain ours to him.  

As Isis' Priest killed Ethalus, his guest,  
620. Whose service angered Io doth detest.   
Iö, daughter of the river Inachus, was beloved of Jupiter, which that Juno might not suspect, he turned her into a Cow, which Juno begs and delivers to hundred-eyed Argus to be kept, him Mercury kills: Juno sends a breeze which made Io run mad up and down the world, till she came to Egypt, where she recovers her former shape, and being called Isis, she was married to Osiris: being dead she was deified and honoured with a Temple, Priests and Sacrifice. One of her Priests had killed Ethalus whom he entertained as a guest: the people to appease the Goddess being offended with the fact, deposed him out of his Priesthood, and decreed, that neither he nor any of his kindred should ever be admitted to that office.  
(1) Io is feigned to be the daughter of a river, because her father Inachus, the first that reigned in Argos, was accidentally drowned in Carmanor, which after bare his name. Diodorus writes, that Io was a most beautiful woman, and married to Osiris, and that he was called Jupiter, and she Isis; thus Jupiter loved Isis: Certainly the Egyptians worshipped Osiris under the shape of an Ox, and why not Isis in the form of a Cow? for she taught them husbandry and many arts. Nor do some of the learned doubt, but that the Israelites long sojourning in Egypt, brought thence their superstition of the golden calf, made after two by Jeroboam, 
Sandys.  that lived an exile in that country. So much for History. But, Naturally, Jupiter lay with Io, that is, the etherial heat draws up vapours from the earth perpetually, and is delivered to Argus, that is, the starry heaven, 
Nat. Com.  to be kept. Morally thus. Io was turned to a Cow, and delivered to Argus: so many by God's permission degenerate into beastly affections, whereby they are made slaves to wealth, and are subject to watching and continual cares, like Argus his eyes.  

Or as Melanthius son that guilty lay  
In dark, by light his mother did bewray:  
So let thy body he with weapons cut,  
And of all friendly succour destitute.   
Codrus son of Melanthius (not the King nor the Poet) having killed his father, hide himself; his mother alone knowing where he lay, with a candle found him out, and delivered him to the Athenians to suffer death.  
(1) That famous Greek Lawgiver being asked why among other Laws he made none against him that killed his father; gave this worthy answer; I thought no man could be so wicked. Wickedness it is of a deep die, to kill a natural father, but it was a crime in grain for Ravilliack to kill his civil father, That is but a private, This a public person, and a common parent: The blood of a murdered stranger will cry aloud to heaven for vengeance, of a brother louder, but of a father louder yet. If Cain shall be avenged seven times, Lamech shall be avenged seven times seven, Gen. 4.24.  

Such as the desperate Trojan that did vow  
To steal Achilles' horses, rest have thou.   
Dolon, a nimble-footed soldier of Troy, for a sum of money, promised to fetch away two of Achilles' horses, but he was prevented by Ulysses and Diomedes, by whom he was all night examined concerning the affairs of Troy, and in the morning killed.  
(1) Who can blame Dolon, a poor Pedee, for adventuring his life for Gold? What else, next to honour, is the highest aim of the chiefest soldier? The first was the happiest of all ages, it was golden, not from money but manners; for than was no gold nor silver known, no war nor soldier used. This last and worst of Ages, though it be called the Iron age, because so much arms and weapons are made, it may indeed more properly be called the golden age, for never was gold in more esteem.  

Aurea nunc verè sunt secula, plurimus auro  
Venit honos, auro conciliatur Amor.   

Now is the golden age indeed, for gold  
Honour is bought, and love itself is sold.   

Such sleep as Rhesus and his company,  
May'st thou enjoy the night before thou die.   
Rhesus King of Thracia had horses of whom it was destined, that if they drank of the river Xanthus, and tasted of the pastures of Troy, that Troy should not be taken (such was the fond conceit of the besieged) he approached very nigh unto his fatal steeds, but was taken by night of Ulysses, and both he and his company slain.  
(1) Whatsoever Providence hath decreed concerning person or Nation cannot be avoided. All humane policy, plots, and stratagems crossing this, are but labour in vain; sublunary and secundary causes are but subordinate instruments. The divine power is the first mover and director of all. (2) Man may purpose, God must dispose. But if God be for us who can be against us? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  

If God thee aid, no force can thee assail:  
If God helps not, no labour can prevail.   

Or with Rutilian Rhamnes whom the son  
630. Of Hyrtacus slew, and his companion.   
Rhamnes a King and Soothsayer, an auxiliary of Turnus, being a sleep in his Tent with many soldiers, was taken napping, and slain by Nysus son of Hyrtacus, and his companion Euryalus.  
(1) Augustus Caesar would gladly have bought that man's pillow whereon he could sleep, being in debt, not fearing a Catch-poll at the door to apprehend him. Desperate is the condition of that Mariner that falls asleep on the top of a mast-pole; and who will pity that soldier's death, that s●orts in his tent, not dreaming that the enemy is still watching to surprise him? (2) Let us keep a continual guard over our souls. Be sober and watch, for your enemy the Devil walketh about, like a roaring Lion, seeking whom he may devour, 1 Pet. 5.8.  

As Clysias son hemmed in with stifling fire,  
Members half burned bring to the Stygian mire.   
Alcibiades an Athenian, could frame himself to all manners, customs, and fashions. Plutarch in his life, bestows upon him this character. He could more easily transform himself to all manner of shapes, than a Chameleon; so that all people did wonder that in one man could be so divers natures. At the last by the means of Lysander, he was banished into Phrygia, whither Pharnabazus sent executioners to kill him: They set the house on fire, which Alcibiades espying, ran through the fire somewhat singed; the Murderers shot him with darts, and killed him.  
(1) The Chameleon is a small beast, much like a Frog or a Toad; it can change itself to all colours but white, so can Hypocrites to any thing but honesty. The Polypus in Lucian, is a small kind of fish, that can turn itself to the colour of any rock she swim● to. So Timists & Hypocrites change their opinion, and swim with the tide like Alcibiades, to day a● holy as a Monk, to morrow as wicked as a Devil: like Materia prima, omaium formarum capax; apt to entertain any form: Omnium horarum homo; turned up and down, like, and as oft as an hourglass. But such All-no-noth●ngs, though they may not, perhaps, with Alcibiades, suffer the fire and sword here, must expect their portion among their brother-hypocrites in the lake hereafter.  

As Rhemus that upon th'unfinished wall  
Presumed to leap, thy pate rude weapons maul.   
When Rome was building, Romulus the Founder and Namer of the City, made an Edict, that upon pain of death none should climb the walls, before they were finished: his brother Rhemus, not regarding the King's command, ascended, but was killed for his pains by the workmen.  
(1) Fortune and Justice are both painted blind; the one bestows without respect of persons, so should the other punish, not conniving at friends, or a brother as dear as Rhemus. Qui non vetat peccare cùm potest, jubet. 
Sen. Trag.  An ill executioner of Laws is worse in a State, than a great breaker of them. Therefore Zaleucus, when his own son for Adultery should according to Law, have lost both his eyes, he plucked out one of his own eyes first, and then one of his sons; thus showing himself a tender father, not only to his child, but country, in preserving the Laws entire.  

635. Lastly among the Sauromatick fry,  
And darting Geteses, here may'st thou live and die.   
Sarmates are fierce and cruel people, inhabiting near the Euxin Sea, in the utmost part of Scythia; they feed upon horseflesh, and man's flesh, and are therefore called Anthropophagis; by reason of the extreme cold of that Climate they lie in Caves under ground▪ they fight with darts, never knowing p●●ce. The Greeks call them Sauromates from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is a L●zard, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Eye.  
G●es are a people in Europe, near Scythia, sometimes called Daci, or D●vi: therefore slaves among the Athenians were named Davi, or Ge●ae. To this cold and comfortless nook of the world was most unseasonably transplanted the choicest flower of Poetry, our most ingenious author Ovid.  
(1) This one Distich is the acutest, and smartest in all this little & learned Poem: for it is not only most of all Satirical, but succinctly Rhetorical. Ovid after many grievous miseries and mischiefs imprecated against Ibis, sums up all particulars in this one Total, and comprehends all curses that he hath or could repeat, in this brief Corollary (for worse he thought he could not invent) To live and die in that accursed coas● where he was banished. And Oratorically herein he doth closely intimate to Augustus, that of all the punishments he could possibly inflict upon the most grievous offender, none could be more grievous than his banishment into Scythia.  

These lines in brief, and in posthaste I wrote,  
That thou mightst not complain I thee forgot.   
(1) Surely he must have a memory brittler than Messala Corvinus, that forgot his own name, and a judgement shallower than a Baeotian, that having throughly perused this Book, will imagine that Ovid had forgotten Ibis.  

My votes are few, Gods add unto the score,  
640. And multiply thy tortures more and more.  
More shalt thou read, which thy right name shall hit,  
And in such feet as bloody wars be writ.   
FINIS.